Avatar of Chaos
by Exarikun
Summary: - ON HOLD - Chapter 1-3 revised Ranma ponders over the reason why his life is so chaotic. Then he gets an offer from somewhere unexpected. And with it a chance to maybe control the chaos?
1. Chapter 1

Hi! I got this idea when reading fanfics of Ranma where they describe him as someone who attracts heaps and heaps of chaos. That got me thinking. What if someone besides the writer noticed this? And so an idea for a story is born... Lets hope it's a good one.

**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 1**

Ranma was sitting on the roof of the Tendo home. It was raining slightly at the time, so she was in her girl form. For once she didn't mind, if she even noticed. She was thinking about what had happened today.

It had started in the morning. Shampoo had once again opted to sleep in his futon, after he had fallen asleep of course. So when Akane had come to wake him up, she had seen Shampoo lying next to him, snuggling close to him and had, once again, jumped to conclusions. As a result, he got doused with a bucket of ice cold water and knocked through the roof. Again.

It had been a relatively quiet walk to school. He had even avoided getting splashed on the way to school. So he had been feeling somewhat better when they reached the schoolgates. Then who else but the True Blunder himself had to spoil his tentative good mood? After listening to his insane ranting about him being a dark sorcerer and to release both Akane and the Pigtailed Goddess from his control, he simply decided to work out some frustration on the delusional fool. For once, he did use a weapon. Namely Kuno's own bokken. He hoped, in vain, that it would somehow convince Kuno that he simply could not beat him.

After entering the classroom, he then got drained by Ms. Hinako for being late. By noon he had been largely back to normal in regards of Ki levels. Of course, lunch was a perfect time for Murphy's law to strike. And guess what? It did. In the form of being presented lunch from Ukyo, Shampoo and Akane at the same time. Now, eating Akane's lunch was out of the question, unless he wanted to turn to stone of whatever the lunch would do to him. It certainly would leave him in a state less than healthy. Eating either of Ukyo's or Shampoo's lunches would get Akane mad at him and give him a ticket via Mallet Air. Eating both their lunches would give the same result, only Ukyo and Shampoo wouldn't get at eachothers throat. So he decided to eat neither and stick with the lunch Kasumi had given him. This of course still got Akane mad at him for refusing to eat the lunch she had worked so hard to prepare. Thus resulting in a quick trip via Mallet Air.

During the rest of the day, he further encountered Ryoga, Mousse, Kodachi and Happosai. After these 'happy' encounters, he had gone home, where he was once again ambushed by his father and Soun in another lame attempt to sucker him into marriage with Akane. After dinner, he'd gone to his room when he spotted P-chan lurking around (read, trying to find Akane's room so he could sleep in her bed again). He tried to prevent this, but got malleted outside, though the roof, by Akane for picking on her pet pig.

And so here she was, contemplating all the stuff that had happened over the years.

"None of this can be worth the crap I have to take." She was musing out loud.

"Going through the Cat Fist training, getting a curse, getting who knows how many fiancées, being abused and exploited by the people whom I live with. The only person who's polite to me here is Kasumi. Nabiki is always trying to get whatever money I might have and Akane sees me as her personal punching bag or something. I'm certainly no more then a possession to either be used or abused to them."

She sighed. When at first he had come to the Tendo house, he had thought that maybe he could become friends with Akane. But ever since she found out about the curse, her behavior had been getting worse. Sure, there were moments where she would smile at him and even talk to him normally, but those were far and few between and mostly got interrupted by something or someone.

"Then all the other craziness that happens to me. Getting attacked more times a day then a normal person would in his entire life. Having Shampoo glomp me all the time and getting me flattened by Akane. She never even apologizes for those times where she gets me in trouble. She even seems to like it. Then Mousse with his stupid notions that I'm trying to steal Shampoo from him, never mind that I told both of them that I'm not interested in her. Then we have Kuno and his wacky sister. Both adore and despise one side of me. Always attacking me or trying to drug me."

She sighed again. Deeply this time.

"It's like chaos is following me around."

"But it is following you." A voice from behind her said.

In a flash, Ranma was on her feet and in a ready stand. Whoever this was, he/she was good enough to sneak up on her.

"Who're you and whadda ya want with me?" She asked. She was annoyed at herself that she hadn't detected the newcomer.

Before her stood a man, a bit taller than Ranmas male form. He wore black clothes. Black jeans, black shirt, black shoes and black socks could also be seen. Curiously, his clothes weren't wet from the rain. His features were quite handsome. His eyes were a bit uncommon though. They were an almost unnatural green color. Almost like emeralds. But not quite yet. Black hair that was pulled in a loose ponytail that reached till his waist could be seen waving behind him. All in all, it seemed to be a normal man, who even felt quite powerful too. But the feeling was a bit off for some reason. Ranma couldn't lay her finger on it though.

"I'm sorry to have startled you. I didn't mean to surprise you nor do I mean you any harm. I have noticed that you seem to either create chaos or get mixed up in it. I investigated this and now I've come to make you an offer." The man said.

"An offer? I don't even know who you are, so why should I trust you or anything you have to offer?" She retorted.

"I apologize. My name is Xion and I'm a Chaos God."

At the Cat Cafe, Cologne suddenly sensed something... strange She frowned and concentrated on the feeling. But try as she might, she could not properly identify what it was. It would have surprised her if she could, as she couldn't recall ever sensing something like it.

This bore looking into.

On the Tendo roof, Ranma was temporarily stunned.

_'A God! That's... impossible!'_

Then she snorted. And stuck her foot in her mouth...

"Really? A God you say? Hmm, it's been a while since one of you paid me a visit."

Xion looked... well, I dunno how he looked, but he looked something. Then he snapped his fingers and they were gone.

Cologne stopped when the strange feeling vanished. She had been looking for the source, which had not been easy since it seemed to come from everywhere at the same time, when it suddenly disappeared. After sensing nothing for a minute, she turned back to the Cat Cafe. Whatever it had been, it was gone now. She'd keep on her guard just in case though.

Ranma found herself floating in a big, gray space. Actually, gray wasn't the color. It was a mixture of dark and light colors. If she looked close enough, she could see the various different colors swirling around. But overall, it gave the space a gray color. Xion floated before her, hands in pockets again. Beneath them was some kind of desert floor. It looked totally abandoned. There seemed to be no sign of life anywhere. Again, the color was gray. Real gray this time.

"I anticipated that you would not believe me, so I brought us to the Shadow Realm. It is one of many dimensions surrounding this reality. This is a quiet dimension, at least most of the time. I brought us here so we could talk without having to fear from prying eyes or ears."

Ranma looked around in wonder, thinking this was all a big illusion.

"No, Ranma, this is no illusion. What you see here, is all very real. This place contains some very powerful magic and time flows differently here. One minute in your world compares to 12 hours in this dimension. It also serves as a passageway to other dimensions or realities."

"Hey, how didya know what I was thinkin'?"

"I AM a God, Ranma. Reading the mind of a mortal is childsplay for one with my power. Now, before you go and deny that I could be a God, listen to what I have to say."

Ranma thought about this and decided that it couldn't hurt to listen, she nodded.

"Thank you. Now, I've told you that I investigated the reason why everything around you seems so chaotic. The reason is that you generate a chaotic field. It seems to be generated naturally, since I could not detect any magic that could cause this. You are surrounded by chaos and that's the reason that so much weirdness happens with you. Since I am a God of Chaos, I see you as one that has very much potential. I came to you because I want to make you an offer. It will be offered only once and whatever you decide, I shall respect it. Should you accept and at some point decide that you want out, I would not stop you. I would try to talk you out of it, but in the end, it would be your choice."

Ranma couldn't believe it. She was offered something and whatever she decided, Xion would accept it.

"I'm listening."

"I would like for you to become my Avatar."

"Huh? Your what?" Ranma dumbly asked.

"My Avatar. A chosen representative or vessel on Earth. An Avatar is someone that receives some of the power from the God who chose them. They are representatives for the God or Goddess when they have need for one. In extreme cases, they become the vessel for the God or Goddess themselves."

"And what's in it for me? So far it seems it's just you who gets a new servant or something." Ranma asked. She'd never been accused of being subtle.

Xion smiled at the quiet rude reaction from the human. He, well she at the moment, seemed to treat him as an equal instead of a God. He liked it. A lot.

"First, you are under my protection. Should you ever need protection from something that would overwhelm you, I would step in. Second, you receive some of my power and knowledge. Can't have an Avatar that's ignorant about the power of his or her God or Goddess. Third, I would help you to try to control the chaos in your life. You would still be generating that chaos field, but you might be able to control the effects to a large degree, leading a somewhat more normal life. Forth, I could be your friend if you would be mine."

"Friend?"

"Yes, being a Chaos God tends to limit the amount of friends we have. Chaos is mostly seen as an evil force since it is the direct opposite of order. The other Gods realize that we are needed, but still tend to stay away from us."

"I see..." Ranma said. The idea of being friends with a God seemed somewhat ludicrous, but still... Given the life she had led so far, she didn't have that many friends either.

"Say, since you're a God, can you remove my curse? I'm sure that you know about it since you seem to know a lot about me."

"No, not even my powers are enough to remove your curse. If it were any other curse, I might be able to, but I'm not powerful enough to remove a Jusenkyo curse. I think the only being that could remove such a curse is Kami himself. However," He began as Ranmas face began to fall, "it might be possible to somewhat stabilize your curse over time. Perhaps even control it. But I can't guarantee it."

"Ok. But in the long run, what happens if I accept?"

"I would help you to learn to control the chaos around you. You would be able to lead a semi-normal life. You will be called upon when I have need for a representative or if the situation needs my direct intervention when I am unable to attend myself, thus leading to me temporarily taking over your body to serve as my vessel. You would gain new powers. And you'd possibly gain a friend in the process."

Ranma was silent. A chance to control at least some of the chaos in her life. Maybe even be able to control the curse.

"Understand Ranma, I won't force you to accept and I won't think less of you if you choose to decline. After all, it won't be a ride in the park at moments, but I believe that the things you gain make up for the things you would have to give up."

Ranma was silent for a long while. She had never been given a choice in anything. She had always had all the choices made for her and she was sick of it. In the end, it was the possible friendship that made Ranma agree.

"I'll do it. I'll become your Avatar." She said.

There! The end of the first chapter.

Oh, I forgot, I don't own any of these characters, besides Xion. I'm not making any money with this either, so no reason to sue me. This is just harmless fun.

Anyway, tell me what you think of it. Should I continue? If so, ideas are always welcome. Also, who should I pair Ranma with? I'm open to suggestions, just as long it's not Kodachi. Can't stand her laugh and I wouldn't wish her on my worst enemy.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: ok, not mine so don't sue.

Ok, so people tell me that it shouldn't be to hard for a God to conjure up some of the water from Spring of Drowned Man. Ok, I'll admit, that's true, a God wouldn't have any trouble with it. BUT, there's a but...

But... I'm not gonna tell you yet. Everything will be explained in the story, so hang on a little.

Now, about the pairings:

Kasumi: 4

Nina (Breath of Fire 2, don't even know that...): 1

Blue (Breath of Fire, don't know that either...): 1

Rogue (X-Men Evolution): 1

Belldandy: 1

Any of the Tenchi girls: 1

Ukyo: 1

Shampoo: 1

Nabiki: 7

Hmmm, who to choose... Aah, choices, choices. You will notice that there aren't any votes for Akane (yet?). Don't worry, I'm not planning to make that couple, unless something drastic should happen. Like me going (even more) mental...

Yes, I'll be making a crossover from this. Sailormoon at the very least, if for nothing else to make the life of Setsuna miserable by destroying Crystal Tokyo. Again... It seems that a lot of people that make Ranma/Sailormoon crossovers like to destroy C.T. Hehe, I like that idea, so I'm gonna use it. Or part of it...

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. But keep em comin' :))) And I would like some people that want to share any ideas they might have. That's my biggest problem. I can start a story easy, but to keep the inspiration flowing, now that's another story... So if any of you are interested in sharing any ideas with me, please do. I'll make sure you get the credit you deserve.

******

**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 2**

The first things that Ranma noticed when he woke up, was that, one, he had woken up by himself and two, he was male when he woke up. Coming to the conclusion that Akane hadn't woken him up yet, so he must be up early. He stood and stretched a bit. It was then that he remembered what happened the day before. Or was it all a dream? It seemed so unreal.

_'No, Ranma, it was no dream.'_

"Huh?" Ranma looked around for the speaker, but didn't find anyone. He heard someone chuckle.

_'No need to look for me cause you won't find me. I'm talking to you through your mind. Something of a handy trick when it comes to staying in touch with you.'_

"Oh, ok."

_'You know, you don't have to talk out loud. If you just think what you're going to say, I'll hear it just as well. People would start to wonder if you still have your sanity when they see you seemingly talking to either nobody or yourself.'_

_'Aah, ok, testing...'_

_'I hear you loud and clear Ranma. How are you feeling?'_

He'd stopped stretching when Xion addressed him and when he was about to begin again, he noticed something.

_'Actually, I feel kind of weak. Like there's something wrong with my Ki stores. My Ki feels a bit on the low side.'_

_'That's because you Ki stores are being depleted.'_

_'WHAAAT?!?!'_

_'Ow. No reason to get upset and let me explain. When you agreed to become my avatar yesterday night, I infused your body with an amount of Chaos energy equal the size of your maximum Ki capabilities. Had you simply been one to be empowered by me, then I would have boosted your natural abilities to much higher levels, but no more. But since you will be my avatar, your body needs to be able to sustain my presence and be able to deal with the high amount of energies that are likely to be channeled through you. Thus, the Chaos energies and your own Ki have begun merging. Slowly, your Ki stores diminish as they merge with the new energies. I forced your Ki to its maximum capable level and made sure there was an equal amount of Chaos energy, so the final merging will consist of 50% Ki and 50% Chaos energy. Neither will be recognizable as its previous configuration, but they will still be there.'_

_'So, what happens when this merging is done? And for that matter, why didn't you say something about this before?'_

_'Uhm, well, you see... Well, to be honest, you will be my first avatar. I really didn't think about that. But to answer your first question, as your Ki is being drained, your body will automatically look for new energies to keep itself alive, because as you well know, without Ki, you can't live. Now, Chaos energy in itself isn't suitable to sustain life, but the merged energies will. So, your body will slowly adapt to the change of energy. When the merging is complete, I suspect that you will be at the same level of power as you were before, but until then I'm afraid you'll be significantly weakened.'_

_'Great, just great. And knowing my luck, everybody will learn about this and everyone will be after my head.'_ Ranma grumbled. Xion had nothing to say to this, for he knew from Ranmas memories that this was true.

_'Say, how long will this last anyway? How long till I'm back to my normal strength?'_

_'Well, judging by the speed of the merging and the amount of Ki and Chaos energy still left, I'd say at least 48 more hours. But there is a good side about this. Well, relatively speaking it is...'_

_'And what would that be? How can there be a good side about me being weak?'_

_'Well, it's not about you being weak, but about you attracting chaos like a magnet. Remember that I told you about how you create a chaotic field that attracts and causes chaos around you?'_

_'Yeah, go on.'_

_'Well it seems that the creation of this field is tied to your Ki. As a result, it would get weaker for as long as your Ki would merge with the Chaos energy. After the merging, it would go back to full strength once your body has adapted to its new sustaining energy.'_

_'You said 'would get weaker', so why isn't it?'_

_'Because I've disabled it. Well, at least for the moment. You see, when the field began to weaken, it was a simple matter to lay it dormant entirely. At least until the merge is complete. So, you will lead a little more stable life for the next two days. A vacation, one could assume.'_

_'Wow, no chaos... Heavy...'_

_'Indeed. And quite boring too.'_ Xion grumbled. Ranma chuckled at that. He didn't mind a day or two of peace and quiet. He finished stretching and then went downstairs to eat breakfast.

***

As Ranma stepped out of his room, he almost bumped into Nabiki, who was rubbing her eyes in an effort to keep them open.

"Morning, Ranma." She said as she noticed him.

"Morning, Nabiki." Ranma replied. Then he saw her eyes suddenly focus on him, as if confirming that he really was there. Then her eyes darted down her own body, causing Ranmas eyes to follow. They widened as he saw she was wearing a black, just-barely-see-through negligee. Both their cheeks reddened somewhat. Ranma quickly averted his eyes and moved aside to let Nabiki pass. She didn't let the opportunity slide and walked away at a pace a faster than normal. Ranma sighed in relief. Good thing Akane hadn't seen that, or she would've jumped to conclusions again.

"Oh well, let's go eat some breakfast." He said and started back to the kitchen. Then he heard a sound that sent chills down his spine.

"Meeoooow."

He stiffly turned towards the sound and saw a cat sitting on the fence outside. He gulped deeply and hurriedly ran to the kitchen where he wouldn't see the cat anymore.

When he arrived at the kitchen, he had calmed down enough to appear normal. He bid everyone a good morning and seated himself. Kasumi filled his plate and handed it to him.

"Thanks Kasumi, it smells delicious." He smiled at her.

"Why thank you, Ranma." Kasumi smiled back at him.

Akane frowned at this and began glaring at Ranma, who didn't notice a thing. She decided that he wasn't worth the effort of pulling out her mallet to sock him in the head and continued eating, although with a darker mood than before.

Ranma of course didn't notice any of this as he was busy thinking about the cat he'd seen earlier.

_'Stupid Neko-ken'_

_'Sorry, what was that?'_

_'Oh, uh, nothin', don't worry about it. Just thinking about some stuff.'_

_'Ah, allright. If you have a problem, it helps if you have someone to talk about it. So if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm right here.'_

_'Thanks, I'll remember that. But it's no big deal, really. Just some cat I saw.'_

_'And what's wrong with cats?'_

_'Well, I kinda get scared from cats. It's all pops fault really.'_ Had Ranma thought about it, he would have realized that he just gave away his weak point without even blinking.

_'How do you figure that?'_

_'Aah, it's all because of that Neko-ken training...'_

_'WHAAAT!?! YOU'RE FATHER PUT YOU THROUGH THAT MADDENING TRAINING!?!' _Ranma winced at the loud voice that rang through his head. Nabiki, who had by now joined the rest at the table, noticed his wince.

"Something wrong, Saotome?" She asked in a cool tone.

_'Hey, what happened to using my first name?'_ "No, just a slight headache. It'll pass."

_'I'm sorry for yelling like that, but I just can't believe that someone would put their child through that training. I didn't think anyone was that stupid.'_

_'Yeah, well, nobody ever accused pop of being smart. The idiot didn't even read the entire manual and therefor missed the warnings about training someone in the Neko-ken.'_

_'I see. Well, we'll just have to fix your fear of cats. After all, it wouldn't do if I had need of you as my vessel and you suddenly fell victim to the Neko-ken. But don't worry, after I'm done with you, you'll be rid of your fear of cats and you'll be able to use the Neko-ken on a conscious level. However, you will probably lose the speed and fierceness of the primal Neko-ken state.'_

_'Hey, wait a minute! Don't I get a say in this?'_

_'Of course you do, but I thought you'd be thrilled about not having to fear cats anymore or controlling the Neko-ken on a conscious level.'_

_'Well, not fearing cats or actually controlling the Neko-ken would be great, but how would you do it?'_

_'I don't know yet, but I'll figure something out. I promise that I'll rid you of your fear for cats and help you control the Neko-ken. But first I think you've got school to worry about.'_

Ranma looked at the clock and saw that it was indeed almost time to leave. So he finished up and got ready to leave to school.

***

The walk to school was a quiet one. No one attacked, Ranma didn't get splashed, Shampoo didn't appear. In other words, it was a boring walk. Ranma found it ironic that for the one time he had a quiet walk to school without any disruptions whatsoever, he found himself wishing for something to happen. He then realized that it was so quiet because he no longer generated a chaos field. He found himself a little overwhelmed about the fact that all the strange stuff that had been happening all his life was because he actually attracted it. Now that the cause was gone, he couldn't believe how dull and boring life was. Talk about irony...

Akane didn't seem to notice, but Nabiki did notice that it was a little too quiet. Normally, whenever she walked with her sister and her fiancée, something would always happen. Now, people didn't even seem to notice them. She looked to Ranma and frowned when she saw him smiling. Well, it was a bit of a wistful smile, as if he knew something and wished it were different. But why would he be smiling then?

_'I just don't understand the guy. Here we are, quietly walking to school, no interruptions, and he looks like he's bored and wishing for something to happen? What's up with that?'_

***

While the trio walked to school, Xion was contemplating on how to make true his promise to Ranma. Dammit, he had to promise, didn't he? Now he had no choice but to keep it.

_'Well, if I can get Ranma to use the Neko-ken at will, then I can deal with his cat fobia. But how to teach Ranma to control the Neko-ken? Hmm, this might be harder then I first thought. Wait a minute... That might work. It'd be risky, but it might work...'_

As Xion began planning Ranmas mastering over the Neko-ken, his young avatar in question was having a rather normal, just-a-day-of-the-week schoolday. And he was bored out of his mind. He had nothing to do, no breaks from the boring lessons. People who knew Ranma began to notice that something was... off Even Akane noticed that it was quieter than usual. Whenever Nabiki had the chance, she continued to observe Ranma, to see if he knew something about why it was so quiet today. He seemed a little off in his behavior, but other than that, there didn't seem to be anything wrong.

Oh well, she'd get to the bottom of it soon enough. After all, nobody could keep secrets from her, now could they?

******

Chapter 2 is done. Hmm, I seem to be on a roll here. Ok, the first chapters will be mostly about how Ranma goes through the changes of becoming an avatar. Idea's are very much welcome and so are suggestions on pairings. Personally, I'd pick Nabiki, cause they can make a good couple, but I'll see who is most popular amongst you readers.

On a side note though, most of the votes for Kasumi were accompanied with something along the line of how only she would be able to deal with his chaos energies and aura. Something like that anyway. But why would Kasumi be the only one? Agreed, she's a calm and collected person, but she's just as human as the rest of the girls. Even Kasumi has doubts and fears. It's not because she doesn't get mad or something else that she would be better equipped to handle Ranmas increased Chaos output.

Anyway, till next chapter and REVIEW!! I want lots and lots of reviews!!!! Gimmegimmegimme!!!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, crazy fanfic readers!!! Once again it is I, the great Exarikun, who has come to entertain you people with FANFICTION!!!  
*crashing sound, followed by howl of pain...*  
Uhm, sorry 'bout that, I've been having probs with this annoying little devil that keeps taking over my body. Anyway, I'm back and very glad to tell you that I've been having some ideas for this story. Including on how to handle the Neko-ken. I don't think anybody has ever done what I'll attempt to do to solve that. But that's for later.

First, the dear reviewers seem to have some notes/questions/remarks. Which is fine, cause it keeps me informed about what they think about it and what they think should be done or changed. Here we go: 

**- Shi** thought it might be a good idea if Kasumi were to be an avatar for Belldandy.  
* Ok, that might work, but Belldandy is already on Earth and bound to whats-his-name (Keichi, I think...) by wish. So I don't really see a reason to make Kasumi her avatar. Still, while I'm not going to use it (in this story, who knows later), it's still a good idea.

- Some reviewers mention the curse and how easy it should be for a God to cure the curse.  
* There is a reason for it and will be explained further into the story.

- **Regrem Erutaerc** remarked that I should have described how Xion looked.  
* Uhm, well, that seems to have... slipped my mind. Whoops... I'll add a description in chapter one as soon as I think of one, ok? Sorry for forgetting such an important piece of info...

- **Dogbertcarroll** raised the idea of Ranma skipping Nerima.  
* That would be a good way to meet new people and give ample opportunity for crossovers. I'm taking the idea into heavy consideration. It'd even follow on a piece of the story I already have in mind.

- **Cordula** suggested I go into uncharted territory and pair Ranma with a guy.  
* Uhm, no. Not that I have anything against alternate lifestyles of gay people in general. It's just that I got my own preferences and I can't really envision Ranma as being with another guy. And I'm not sure that it hasn't been tried. I've come across one or two that at least hinted at it...

- **Brother Angelon** suggested bringing the Goddess Bast into the picture to help Ranma with the Neko-ken.  
* I might. But not as a main solution. Like I said, I think I've got an unused idea for that. But she might come into the picture, who knows?

- **Jewels** asked me how long I worked on this one.  
* If you think I slaved over this, I'm gonna have to disappoint you. I had this idea in my head and I decided to try it out. I wrote the first chapter on a whim then one night and posted it. So far, people seem to like it ;)

- **Ravenwolf** suggested that if Ranma get paired up with Rogue, his Chaotic aura neutralizes her draining powers, or a multicrossover where he gets more than 1 girl.  
* First, the multicrossover idea. If I did that, then that would put him in the same situation as before, now wouldn't it? On the other hand, your idea for Rogue has a lot of potential. If I do decide to pair Ranma up with Rogue, I'll certainly use your idea.

Ok, that's about it for now. Now for the votes.

Nabiki: 13

Kasumi: 11

Pluto/Setsuna: 9 (= ???how did this happen???)

Rogue (X-Men Evolution): 5

Akane (IF she SERIOUSLY changes): 3

Belldandy: 2 -- Mercury/Ami: 2 -- Lina Inverse: 2 -- Saturn/Hotaru: 2 -- Nina (Breath of Fire 2): 2

Blue (Breath of Fire): 1

Katt: 1

Any of the Tenchi girls: 1

Tsunami: 1

Tokimi: 1

Ukyo: 1

Shampoo: 1

Sailor Moon/Usagi: 1

Grown up Chibi Moon/Usa: 1

Gina Diggers: 1

Well, it looks like Nabiki is on top. Good for me... As for the people that voted for Sailor Pluto/Setsuna, sorry to disappoint you, but there will be NO romance between them. I'm putting the votes here for completeness, but that's one pair that won't make it, no matter how many votes it gets. I simply got something else in store for Pluto. Sorry.

Well, I suppose I should get started with this chapter. Ok, here it is.

******

**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 3**

Ranma was pondering. It was morning recess and since his chaos field had been suppressed momentarily, he had time to think about things without being interrupted. He was thinking about his future. Ever since he met Xion, he felt that he had more control over his life. So he'd begun thinking about what HE wanted for his future. Did he want to get married to Akane? That would be a definite no. He'd come to realize that, while he did have feelings for Akane at one point, he no longer felt the same towards her. All she ever did was call him names, hit him with that stupid mallet and never, not even once, did she listen to his side of the story. Everything was always his fault. So Akane was out of the question. Ukyo? Maybe, he didn't know yet. Shampoo? Shampoo was too aggressive most of the time. Even if he wanted to start something with her, he barely knew anything about her. She always tried to trick him by using potions and drugs and so on. Did she really expect that he'd love her more because of that?

He sighed. All his problems with fiancées were his father's fault. He decided not to think about that for a while. So, what did he really want with his life? Had someone asked him that question a few weeks ago, his answer would have been to become a grandmaster of his art. But in the past few weeks, he had begun to find the art less appealing. Lately, it gave him nothing but trouble. All his enemies... So he tried to think of something else he could do instead of the art. Well, maybe not instead of it, but next to it. While he had trouble almost all the time, he still loved to practice and to battle with someone. It gave him a sense of freedom.

_'Why not travel for a while? Being an avatar gives you a longer lifespan than normal humans. And you're no longer limited to this dimension. Remember that the Shadow Realm is connected to other dimensions. If you want, you can travel to another dimension. Think of it as a training journey, to learn about different cultures and maybe pick up some social skills while you're at it.'_

_'Hey!'_

_'What? It's the truth, isn't it? Having traveled for the most part of your life, with nobody but that idiot you call father as company has left you with very great understanding and skills in the martial arts, but leaves you almost completely cut off from anything not martial arts related. There will be situations that can't be solved by martial arts and what will you do then? You would have no idea on how to even approach the problem, let alone solve it.'_

_'Are you calling me stupid?'_

_'No Ranma. I'm merely pointing out that you still need improvement in some areas, social skills being one of them. Now, I can help you with some of that, but you still need the experience. Besides, it'd give you some time away from your father and all the messes he created. Just think about it. You might even find it fun to visit those other dimensions. There are dimensions where magic is a common as technology is here, others where humanity already has colonized space. And so on... You don't have to decide right away, but I think the experience would do you good. Think about it, ok?'_

_'All right, I'll think about it.'_

By then, recess was over and Ranma needed to get back inside. Next class, Ms. Hinako... Whoopee...

As Ms. Hinako was busy teaching the class, Ranmas thoughts drifted once again. He frowned a little as he recalled something Xion said during recess.

_'Hey, Xion?'_

_'Yes?'_

_'You said earlier that being an avatar would give me a longer lifespan then normal. How come?'_

_'Well, humans age rather rapidly by our standards. This means that we would have to find new people as our avatars every 2 decades or so, because we do need vessels that are in somewhat good shape. Unfortunately, the human body begins to degenerate after a while, loosing it's very vitality. This is why when a God chooses an avatar the lifespan of the chosen is prolonged. I think the oldest an avatar became before he had to give up the position was close to 300 years. After that, you age faster, but still slower than normal. So it wouldn't be a bad idea to travel through dimensions as to avoid suspicion. Of course, that won't be needed for quiet some time in your case.'_

_'Ah, I...'_

"Mr. Saotome! Do my lessons bore you?" Ms. Hinako asked.

"Uhm, uh, no, Ms." Ranma replied. _'Damn, busted._'

"Then you wouldn't mind answering the question I just asked you."

_'Damn, I got no idea what she just asked me. Xion, any help?'_

_'I'm sorry, Ranma, but I didn't hear the question either.'_

_'Dammit. Oh, well, might as well admit it...'_

"I'm sorry, Ms. I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again."

"I would hope so, but you still need to be punished for slacking off in class. HAPPO-FIVE-YEN-SATSU!"

Ranma winced. This wouldn't be pleasant. As the draining began, Xion panicked.

_'Hey, she can't do that! She'll upset the balance of the merging process! For the safety of my avatar, I must interfere!'_

As Ms. Hinako drained Ranma, she noticed something wrong. Usually when she absorbed Ranmas Ki she would feel his tremendous energies coursing through her veins, allowing her to grow into her adult form. But this time, she only got a little Ki from him. It was like a spark compared with the normally strong energy flows. She didn't know that Xion was counteracting her draining technique. But to him it was worse than to her, because now the balance between Ki and Chaos energy had been disrupted. The good news was that they still had time to set the balance right again. All he needed to do was re-energise Ranmas Ki. Well, there was Ki floating all over the place, so it was only a matter of taking the amount needed.

In the main time, Hinako couldn't understand how she was unable to drain Ranmas Ki. She didn't even get enough to gain her adult form. Finally, she gave up. The slivers of energy she did receive didn't compete with the amounts she had to use to keep draining.

Ranma too had noticed that Hinako had had trouble with her draining technique. He could feel his Ki lowering, but the percentage that it did lower, was almost negligible.

_'Ranma, because of her technique, you've lost some Ki. I counteracted most of the drain, but not all of it. The balance between Ki and Chaos energy has been shifted. I need to take control over your body for a minute or so to collect enough of the Ki that's still floating through the air. Will you allow this?'_

_'Uh, there won't be any side effects, will there?'_

_'No, there won't. I'll only be controlling your body, not actually channeling my power through it.'_

_'I guess it's ok then...'_

_'Thank you, Ranma, for trusting me.'_ And with that, Xion took over.

Ranmas classmates had seen everything and didn't understand why Hinako hadn't transformed in her adult form when she drained Ranma. Maybe he developed a new technique that countered the draining. Suddenly, moments after the teacher had stopped the drain, something seemed to happen to Ranma. A soft, almost undetectable white light began to shine around his figure. Then a white dot appeared and floated to Ranma. Then another appeared, and another. Soon the classroom was filled with these little glowing dots that all drifted to Ranma, who seemed to absorb them in his aura, since they assumed that was what the light was. When all the dots had been absorbed, the light faded as well.

Xion was glad. He'd reestablished the balance. The downside of this was that it had been seen by the entire classroom.

_'Better do something about this. Hmm, since this protects my avatar from harm, I can wipe the memory of all present here. They would only loose a few minutes and my avatar would be safe.'_

Xion then exerted his power. Even though he wasn't present at the time, his power was great enough to do a small task like this over a distance. It lasted only a second and the memory of all class members had been erased about the incident. Class resumed as if nothing had happened. Ms. Hinako started talking again, and the rest of the class began listening again. Or at least appeared to listen...

Ranma still had his memory intact and decided to pay attention as to avoid another conflict. He'd ask Xion about it later.

***

The rest of the day passed similar to the first half. An absolutely normal school day. Nabiki couldn't believe it, but nobody had harassed Ranma all day long. She didn't know how he did it, but she intended to find out. And see if she could get him to do whatever he was doing when they were home. Maybe that would keep the place in one piece for a bit longer.

Akane was puzzled. Ranma was behaving himself today. Hadn't started a fight so far. Hadn't had any visits from the Slut Patrol (never mind the fact that Ranma can't help it if they decide to show up). Not even Ukyo had come by to give Ranma one of her okonomiyakis He hadn't insulted her yet. Overall, Ranma had been keeping pretty much to himself the entire day. Naturally her thoughts went along the lines of '_He must be up to something. Probably gonna seek out his other fiancées later. Well, that's not gonna work._'

In her musing, Akane had failed to notice that Ranma had taken a different turn than her. Since the silence would only last for 48 hours, he decided that a moment of calm (school didn't count as calm, although it had been nice for a change...) wouldn't hurt. So he turned in the direction of the park. There he simply walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery without having to worry about possible attackers. He'd been wandering in the park for some time when he suddenly heard a battlecry very familiar.

"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!!!" Guess who that was?

Ranma turned around quickly and saw Ryoga rushing up to him. He knew that he'd have trouble with Ryoga in his weakened state. So he had no choice to avoid everything Ryoga would throw at him, much as he hated it. Ryoga started with a haymaker right to the face. Ranma ducked under it and shimmied to the right. Ryoga recovered from his missed punch and began to throw a flurry of punches in Ranmas direction. While he punches didn't have the speed of the Chestnut Fire, they were still pretty fast. Ranma could do nothing but avoid them in defense. Then, for no apparent reason, Ryoga stopped. He cocked his head to one side, as if listening to something only he could hear and had a questioning look on his face. You see, on his latest trip, Ryoga had learned to sense Ki on a more detailed level. He could now identify a person by his or her Ki signature. Granted, Ryoga still needed a lot of work on perfecting his newly acquired technique, but still... Another treat of the technique was that he could now sense the level of power a person had with more accuracy than before. Before it had been something like, low, normal, strong, very strong. Something in that order. But as he assessed Ranmas power while fighting, he discovered something very strange. Ranma seemed to have two sources of Ki in him. One was a bit lower than normal for Ranma and slowly building while the other even lower and dropping. The changes weren't very noticeable, but they were there. Another thing Ryoga noticed that he didn't really feel like fighting with Ranma now. He didn't really know why he started in the first place, but he definitely didn't want to continue. He was hungry and tired from his trip and wanted nothing more than to eat a good meal and then catch some sleep. Maybe take a bath while he was at it. He was jolted out of his reverie when Ranma addressed him.

"Why'd you attack me this time? I wasn't even doing anything but walking and minding my own business." Ranma asked with an annoyed expression on his face.

"I don't know." Ryoga answered truthfully. Now that he thought about it, Ranma really hadn't done anything.

"Huh? You attacked me and you don't even know why?" Ranma asked, a little stunned.

"Uh, yeah, something like that." Ryoga answered, a bit embarrassed by the event.

"Ookay..." Ranma looked at the Eternal Lost Boy. He was acting strange today. But he'd rather deal with this Ryoga than the one who never listened and cursed his name in every other sentence he said. He looked hungry and tired too. 

"Say, you wanna go grab something to eat? If you just returned from one of your trips then I figure you haven't eaten in a while." Ranma offered.

"You buying?" Smirk.

"This time. Next time is on you." Smirk dropped, along with the jaw.

"Come on, I'll walk you."

And so Ranma led Ryoga to a nearby food joint and paid for the meal both he and Ryoga ate. By now, Ryoga was a bit freaked out. No, make that a lot.

"Ranma, what's going on? Why are you being nice to me?" He finally asked.

"I don't feel like fighting today."

"Ok, now I know something is up. You'd never pass up an opportunity for a fight, even if you didn't feel like it. Fighting is what you do best, where you feel in your element. It's who you are."

"Wow, Ryoga. That was deep, coming from you. But you're right, something is up. Or down, depends on how you look at it, I guess."

"Would it have something to do with the fact that you seem to have two Ki sources in you and one of them is feeling pretty low?"

"Yeah, that would be part of it. How did you know anyway?"

"Refined my Ki senses on my latest trip. But..."

And the two normal enemies talked for a long while, about things like where Ryoga had been on his trip, and what had happened in Nerima while he was away. Ranma even confided in Ryoga that something big had happened to him, but didn't say what. He also told him that it was that that caused his Ki to be so low. But somehow, they got to the subject of Ranmas possible leaving of Nerima.

"WHAT?!? You're leaving?!? But why?"

"You have to ask?" Ranma asked somewhat dubious.

"Well, no, I suppose not... But what about Akane?"

"Akane? As far as I care, you can have her. I don't love her, Ryoga. Lately I'm beginning to doubt I ever did."

This statement left Ryoga stunned. Ranma decided to continue while Ryoga was too stunned to do anything but listen.

"I may have had some feelings for her at one time, but not anymore. You see, Ryoga, I'm tired. Tired of constantly having to live with someone I'm supposed to marry because of a stupid pledge between two guys who were probably drunk at the time they made it. Akane doesn't like me and she makes no effort to hide it. She says that she doesn't want to marry me, but she gets insanely jealous whenever one of the other even comes close to me. Now, I've said plenty of times that I'm not interested in them, but she never listens. I think she believes that I invite them over just to get her mad or something. She never listens to me, always calls me names, and always reacts violently towards me."

Now, in normal circumstances, Ryoga would have attacked Ranma by now for daring to say such things about Akane. But with the help of Ranmas chaos aura being suppressed, Ryoga actually thought about what Ranma was saying. He recalled the times in which he had been witness to such events as unwanted people dropping by and usually leaving damage in their wake. He could see with near crystal clarity that Ranma was never happy to see them and did whatever he could to get them away. However, most of the times, he got malleted by Akane for his trouble. Ryoga frowned. This was not what he was used to from Akane. She was always nice to him. Then again, most of the time he was with her, he was in his cursed form. And while Ryoga had been thinking things over, Ranma hadn't stopped talking about his troubles with Akane and his other fiancées.

"So, you see, after things get back to normal with me, I'm thinking about leaving Nerima behind me. Maybe go somewhere where they've never heard of me before. Try to build a life for my own. Simply get away from this chaos. I know it won't solve my problems with the fiancée brigade, but I'll figure something out. That's part of the reason I wanted to talk to you today."

"Oh?" Ryoga snapped out of his reverie.

"Yeah. Look, I know that you have some very tough times, but you can't keep blaming me for every little thing that goes wrong in your life. I know that I'm at least partially responsible for your Jusenkyo curse, but so are you. If you hadn't followed me to China, you never would have had your curse. And before you start protesting about how I ran out on our duel, I didn't run. Ryoga, I know you have problems with directions, but four days to get to the lot behind your house is a bit much, even for you. So, technically, since you didn't show on the set time and date, I won by default. The fact that I only left because my father (note lack of pops here) knocked me out and had to drag me away, shows that I was willing to honor the duel, even if you arrived late."

Ryoga was getting angry. Ranma made sense. Go figure. True, he had to admit that had he not followed Ranma, he wouldn't have received his curse. And even the bit about the duel was right.

"I don't want to be your enemy any longer, Ryoga. We were friends before the duel, despite our differences about the bread. I'd like to be friends again."

While Ryoga was stunned by the offer, Xion contacted Ranma via telepathy.

_'Ranma, are you aware that your friend has a curse on him?'_

_'Off course I am, since I was the one that knocked him in that spring.'_

_'No, I'm not talking about his Jusenkyo curse, but about his problems with directions.'_

_'WHAT?! You're telling me that he can't find his way around because he's cursed?'_

_'Yes, that's about right. Though, it wasn't a curse specifically against the boy himself, but apparently one against his entire clan. It seems to be a curse of some age already. About 200 years old. Maybe more. It's loosing strength, but it will still affect him and his offspring for at least 3 generations before it gets any better.'_

_'Can you help him? If his problems with directions could be solved with my intervention, then he might truly understand that I don't want to be his enemy anymore.'_

_'Are you sure about this? You will be changing the boy's life if I remove his curse.'_

_'True, but if he can find his way, then he at least has a chance on happiness. He could start a family and not have to worry whether he'll see them again anytime soon.'_

_'Very well then. But I hope you know what you're doing with this.'_

And Xion removed the already aging curse that plagued the entire Hibiki clan. He left some of his cleansing behind so that the boy could remove the curse on the rest of his family if they chose to have it removed, which he also told Ranma. After all, it wouldn't be fair that only one member of the clan would be cured while the rest should suffer. On the other hand, finding any of his clan members would be a real task for the boy. Especially since the curse allowed mid-distance teleporting without the user noticing. Oh well, it would be entertaining to follow the former Eternal Lost Boy.

"Ryoga, I got a surprise for you. Let's go outside and I'll show you."

Ryoga was still in a bit of a daze, so he just nodded and followed Ranma outside.

"Ok, I want you to walk to the Cat Cafe. I'll follow you to make sure you don't vanish out of Nerima, but I won't give you any directions." Ranma said. Ryoga glowered and was about to respond that he knew very well that he had problems with directions and that Ranma shouldn't make fun of it, that he didn't know how hard it was, when suddenly the route to the Cat Cafe seemed perfectly clear in his head. A bit puzzled, he began walking towards his intended target without so much as a word. Ranma simply followed.

A few minutes later, Ryoga couldn't believe what he was seeing. Before him lay the Cat Cafe. He'd found the place in one try and didn't even have to backtrack once. He stared at it for a while and then stared at Ranma, who was smiling. Then, Ranma told him to go to various other places, which he also got within the first try. After arriving at the Tendo dojo, Ryoga couldn't take it anymore.

"W...What's going on here? How am I suddenly able to find my way? Ranma, what have you done to me?"

"It appears that your problem with directions lay with your clan. Apparently, a long time ago, someone placed a curse on your clan and that's why you were unable to find your way anywhere. So, as a token that I really am serious about wanting you as my friend, I asked someone to remove your curse. You also have the ability to cure others of your clan of their curse."

Ryoga was speechless. Freed of his directional problems? He couldn't believe it. But, he'd just walked to various stipulated targets and hadn't missed even once. So, it HAD to be true... But why? So he asked.

"Because I'm serious about being your friend again. You also deserve a chance to be happy. Now you can settle down, start a family when you're ready, and you don't have to worry about losing them when you go shopping or something."

Ryoga's brain went into overload. He needed time to process all of this. He murmured a 'thank you' and 'good-bye' and wandered off.

Ranma smiled. It had felt good to help his friend. Very good indeed...

******

Hehe, done. Sorry it took some time, but I didn't really know what to do after morning recess, so it dragged on a bit. It's late now, so I'm gonna leave the explanation about the how and why with Ryoga in the next chapter.

Till later and review...

Bye.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello readers, I'm back once again. Right now, I'm listening to the intro of the Thundercats cartoon and it's gotten me in a mood. Dunno what mood, but a mood non-the-less. I won't bother with reviewers in this chapter, cause not many said useful things or asked questions. Well, they did say useful things, but not enough of them to write a lot about it. Anyway, let's jump to the votes, shall we?

Nabiki: 19  
Kasumi: 17  
Pluto/Setsuna: 12 ( This is SOOOO not gonna happen!!)  
Rogue (X-Men Evolution): 6  
Akane (IF she SERIOUSLY changes): 4 -- Mercury/Ami: 4 -- Saturn/Hotaru: 4  
Lina Inverse: 3  
Belldandy: 2 -- Nina (Breath of Fire 2): 2  
Mara: 1  
Blue (Breath of Fire): 1  
Katt: 1  
Any of the Tenchi girls: 1  
Tsunami: 1  
Tokimi: 1  
Ukyo: 1  
Shampoo: 1  
Sailor Moon/Usagi: 1  
Grown up Chibi Moon/Usa: 1  
Gina Diggers: 1  
Ceres Victoria: 1  
Integra Helsing: 1  
Sasami: 1

Looks like Nabiki is still on top. YAAY!! Sorry, it's just that I've been reading some Ranma/Nabiki fics lately and I like them. Ok, I said it in the previous chapter and I'll say it again. **THERE WILL BE NO RANMA/SETSUNA COUPLE IN THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!** I don't know why you people keep voting for her, but I suppose you have your reasons. Anyway, I don't have anything against Setsuna, but there simply won't be a relationship with her in this story.

Let's get started with the story itself shall we?

**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 4**

Ranma found himself in the Shadow Realm again. After parting with Ryoga, he had gone inside the Tendo home and had avoided being detected by anyone. Then he'd asked Xion to transport him back to the Shadow Realm since it gave him privacy. Well, more so than the Tendo home, since he didn't know yet what really lurked in the Realm.

"Well, that's one problem that's hopefully solved." He commented.

"Maybe, maybe not." Answered Xion. "But there is something we need to talk about first."

"And I'm not gonna like it, am I?" Ranma asked. The tone Xion had used suggested something like that.

"I don't know how you will take the news, but I hope it won't destroy what trust you have in me." Xion looked at Ranma, who was looking sad, as if expecting that something would be done to him and that he would be powerless to stop it.

"Before you think I'm about to take something from you or something like it, hear me out first. You see, as a God, I have to follow some basic rules. That means that I can't just do as I please and interfere in the human world whenever I feel like it. And basically, that is what I did when I removed your friend's curse. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm gonna replace his curse, but it does mean that in the future, I won't be able to help like that." He explained.

"Oh."

"I can still interfere if your life is in danger, since you are under my protection. But even then, I can only help to a certain point. Meaning that I can help you directly, but that I can't solve your problems for you."

"I see." Ranma said. Well, it wasn't as bad as he had expected. "Ok, I can live with that."

Xion breathed a sigh of relief. He had hoped that Ranma wouldn't see this as an abandonment, and he was relieved that he didn't. It would have been hampering if his own avatar didn't trust him anymore.

"While you're here, what would you like to do?" He asked.

"Practice a bit I guess. See if I can use my enhanced Ki just like the old one. I've tried briefly before, but I couldn't get it to respond."

Xion didn't say anything, only focused his senses on the still forming life-energy of his avatar. He then compared it with the remaining bits of the original Ki and saw that they were indeed different enough to make sure Ranma would have to relearn the use of his Ki.

"It seems that the difference between your newly forming Ki and the pure Ki is great enough to cause you problems in using it. I'm sorry to say that you'll have to learn how to use it all over again. But since you already have experience with Ki manipulation, I don't think it'll take you very long to master it again."

"Completely relearn it? Damn, that sucks."

"Indeed. But here you have all the time you'll need to learn again."

"I know, that's why I came here in the first place."

"Good. And while you re-teach yourself, you can also begin with controlling the magic part of your Ki."

"Huh?" This stopped Ranma dead in his tracks. Magic? In his Ki?

"Well, yes. You know your new Ki is a fusion between your original Ki and pure Chaos energy?"

Ranma nodded.

"Well, the Chaos energies are magical in nature, so this will be true for your new Ki as well. All parts of the two energies are fused together, so it stands to reason that the magical part of the Chaos energies would be included in the fusion."

Ranma just nodded dumbly. He couldn't quite grasp the fact that he now possessed magic just yet. He shook his head and decided to deal with that later. He started to practice using his Ki again.

Ranma woke up the following morning. He hadn't slept very well. His efforts to utilize his new Ki like he could his old hadn't succeeded. He could feel the new power that was forming in his body; he had no problems with that. But to control it... There lay a whole different problem. It didn't react to manipulation as his normal Ki had done. He couldn't figure out why. Also, he hadn't been able to stay in the Realm for very long since Xion was needed somewhere else. And since he had yet to learn how to enter end exit the Realm on his own, he had been forced to leave when Xion had to go.

He noticed that this was the second time he'd woken up without either his father or Akane waking him up. He quickly made his way downstairs to eat breakfast. To his surprise, it was still quite early. Only Mr. Tendo, Kasumi and Nabiki were up already. Soun was reading the newspaper, Nabiki was looking like hell as she always did right after she woke up, not that he'd ever tell her that, and Kasumi was eating breakfast. He seated himself and got his plate from Kasumi. Nodding his thanks, he quickly started eating. It didn't happen very often that he didn't have to worry about his father trying to steal his food.

Nabiki may have looked like hell, and she knew it, but she wasn't unaware to things. Even this early in the morning her observation of things was up and running. And right now she noticed that this was the second time in a row that Ranma had come down of his own accord. And he was early too...

Soon, everybody sat at breakfast and ate. After breakfast, those who had to go to school prepared themselves and, when they were ready, they left. The walk itself was a quiet one. When arriving in the school, on time for once, Kuno had decided that he had to correct his lapse in attacking Ranma the day before.

"Ranma Saotome!! Release the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo from thy evil spells or feel the wrath of the heavens!!" He announced.

_'Hmm, I thought my chaos aura wouldn't be up again until the fusion was complete... Oh, well...' _He thought. "What is it this time, Kuno?"

"So thou refuses to release the fair maidens from thine wicked ways? Then have at thee!!" And with this, Kuno attacked. Or tried to anyway. Ranma may have lost the ability to call forth his Ki for a while, but he hadn't lost any of his martial art skills. Ranma simply sidestepped the first and only thrust of the bokken and retaliated with a roundhouse kick to the head. Which of course sent the True Blunder sailing through the air straight into a tree. Had anyone been standing close enough to hear and understand the mumblings Kuno made as he slid off the tree, they would have heard something in the order of, "That didn't hurt..."

Ranma sighed. It seemed that his vacation had been cut short. Not really unexpected, but not very pleasant none the less. Still shaking his head at the unfairness of it all he headed to class. Classes were boring like always and Ranma dozed through most of it.

_'Damn Kuno. Ruining my two day vacation. Jeez, when will he get it through his thick skull that his pigtailed girl doesn't really exist? Sigh, if only there was a way that I could convince him of that. Damn the stupid wannabe samurai and his dense skull. Damn my curse too... Wait a minute... That's it! I've got it! This has got to work!'_

And he planned out the little idea he had had just now. He really hoped that it would work, 'cause it was a last ditch effort. If it didn't work, then he'd give up on trying to get Kuno to see the truth. All he needed now was some cold water and some hot water and he'd be set.

Morning recess. Ranma was waiting for the inevitable. Sure enough, there he came.

"Saotome! Prepare to feel the wrath of the heavens for thine crimes against the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo! Have at thee!" But before Kuno could even begin his assault, Ranma's words stopped him.

"Kuno, walk with me, will you? I've got something to show and tell you." And with that he turned around and walked to some trees that would give them some relative privacy. Kuno was dumbfounded at this change of scenario, but decided to humor the dark sorcerer. After all, he probably wanted to offer his apologies for all the terrible deeds he had commuted against his two beautiful flowers. And if he wanted to trap him, then he'd know true punishment from the heavens. So he followed Ranma.

Quite some people had seen the exchange between the two. No one had any idea of what was about to happen, but were very curious none the less and followed them at a distance. Among them was Nabiki. She didn't know what was about to happen either and was quite curious as well. She did have a feeling that whatever was about to happen would change a lot. So she followed.

When Kuno got to where Ranma was waiting, Ranma addressed him.

"Kuno, before I begin, I want your word of honor that you'll listen to what I'm gonna tell you. That means no interruptions and no attacking. I need your word on this matter."

Whatever brain cells Kuno had, they allowed him to understand that this was going to be more serious than he at first had thought.

"On the honor of the house of Kuno, I shall give thy my word that I shall listen to what thee has to say."

"Good enough. You always accuse me of hiding the pigtailed girl by magical means and saying that I hold both her and Akane in some kind of spell. I'm gonna tell you the true relationship between me and the pigtailed girl." Kuno bristled at the word relationship, but kept quiet. For now...

"The one you refer to as the pigtailed girl, was named Ranko Saotome and she was my twin sister." This obviously shocked Kuno. Whatever he had been expecting, this had not been it. Also those gathered, at a reasonable distance of course, gained looks of disbelief. After all, most people knew about Ranma's curse, so what was he saying?

"Before I was brought to Nerima, my sister, my father and myself were on a training trip to make both my sister and me the greatest martial artists ever known. But on several occasions my father angered people by leaving debts. One such person he angered was a sorcerer. When my father angered the sorcerer, the sorcerer cursed my sister and me as punishment. We were cursed to share the same body for the rest of our lives. But the sorcerer had pity on my sister and so whenever I come in contact with cold water, my body transforms to that of my sister. And when she comes into contact with hot water, she transforms back to my body. But sometime before we arrived in Nerima, my sister's spirit died, leaving me in control over both our bodies. And as such, I won't allow anyone to defile or harm my sister's body, even if she is no longer among us." Ranma finished his tale.

People assembled all around were stupefied. Where and how did Ranma of all people come up with such a story?!? And what was more, it seemed that Kuno actually believed it. As it was, Kuno stood there looking... well, he looked something all right. Even Nabiki looked somewhat surprised. That had been a good tale he'd come up with, even she had to admit that... But the question was, would Kuno really believe it?

To prove his story, Ranma took out the bottle with cold water and doused himself enough to trigger the transformation to his female side. The sight of Kuno's eyes growing to the size of dinner plates was somewhat comical, but Ranma succeeded in keeping his amusement to himself, if barely.

"You see, Kuno, what I just told you is no fairytale. We really were cursed and now I am the only one remaining." And with that, he poured some of the hot water from the thermos he had taken with him over his head, transforming back to his male aspect.

Kuno's worldview was shattered. The pigtailed girl and the vile sorcerer Saotome were the same person! This could not be; this had to be some kind of trick. But he had seen the evidence with his own eyes, had he not? Did that mean that Saotome was not a sorcerer as he had suspected? And what of Akane Tendo?

"But what of the fair Akane Tendo?" He asked, voice slightly shaking.

"After being cursed by a sorcerer myself, do you truly believe that I would use such magic on another person? No, I do not hold Akane in a spell of any sort. The engagement between us was all the idea of our parents. We never agreed with it. Even now, after all this time, we can't even be civil towards the other." Ranma replied. _'But that will all change very soon...'_

Kuno looked like he was in deep thought. That had to hurt... Suddenly, he straightened and looked Ranma straight in the eye.

"Ranma Saotome, I apologise for accusing you of using the Dark Arts. I did not know the true and tragic story behind the pigt... your sister. I shall not bother you with it again." And with that, he turned and walked away.

_'Well, whaddaya know, he does know how to speak normally.'_ Ranma mused. Then, _'He bought it!! Yes!! Free of that moron! Unbelievable that he actually bought it. I guess wonders truly do happen...'_ And Ranma started to walk away. The mass that had gathered parted like the Red Sea had before Moses. After Ranma had left the group, it began to disperse.

Unfortunately, the Law of Murphy was about to rear its ugly head. You see, before recess one of the classes had chemistry. You know, combining elements to watch what reactions would take place. Now, when it was time to clean up, some students had been a bid hasty and one in particular had left the gas crane open. So as a result, gas had been filling the room.

Down below, Nabiki was thinking about Ranma and his rather sudden change in attitude. She didn't really look where she was going and suddenly she stumbled on something. She snapped out of her reverie and set her hands just in time to prevent her smacking facedown on the ground. Luck would have it that she stumbled right below the chemlab.

At that very moment, the chemistry teacher opened the chemlab and switched on the lights. Since the room was filled with gas and the teacher wasn't paying much attention when he opened the door, thus missing the faint gas smell, the spark from the light switch was all that was needed to detonate the gas present in the room.

BWWWAAAMMM!!!

The explosion shook the entire building on its very foundations. The walls on all four sides of the room were blown outwards. The roof was likewise blown upwards. The teacher was blown backwards against the opposite wall of the hall. He didn't survive the devastating impact against the wall. The outer wall of the lab was blown outwards and fell towards the ground where Nabiki had stumbled mere moments ago. The size of the wall and the fact that Nabiki was still down made her survival chances practically zero.

_Nabiki's POV moments before the explosion._

_'Ugh, real smooth, tripping like that.'_

BWWWAAAMMM!!!

Nabiki's head snapped up to the source to the sound. She saw the windows of the room directly before her, three stories up, blow outwards, followed by angry flames. Then she saw the wall follow the example of the windows as it too was blown outwards and began falling. Directly to her position.

Time seemed to slow down. People screaming could be heard as if someone was playing a tape, but at a much slower rate than normal. Pieces of debris could be seen flying in all directions as if moving through some kind of thick substance.

_'I'm gonna DIE!!!'_ Was all Nabiki could scream in her mind.

_Ranma's POV when Nabiki tripped._

Ranma was looking at Nabiki when she stumbled. Shaking his head he began to walk to her to help her up, seeing as she wasn't that far away.

BWWWAAAMMM!!!

Ranma's head snapped up at the same time as that of the others students. He saw the explosion and the wall coming down. The moment he'd seen the wall coming loose, his mind had kicked into overdrive. While Ranma wasn't genius material when it came to thinking, in times of need or battle his mind seemed to skip several levels of thinking speed and started working like lighting. The moment he'd seen the wall loosening and falling, he'd taken stock of Nabiki's position, the size of the falling wall, the fact that Nabiki was still down, and his own distance from Nabiki.

_'I'm not gonna make it!'_

Born from the desperation that one of those he saw as family would be crushed in mere moments, he tried desperately to summon his Ki, knowing it would be futile. But born from that desperation, he was able to tap into his still forming enhanced Ki forces. While his previous attempts to manipulate that new force had been born from a desire to manipulate his energies, this attempt was born from the primal NEED to use that same power to save one of his family.

Power beyond anything Ranma had ever felt before flowed into his muscles. Suddenly moving so fast that people watching would later swear that he had teleported, he was by Nabiki's side in less time than it took to blink an eye. He scooped her up and bolted out from the falling wall that was nearly upon them. They only barely made it out from under it as Ranma threw himself and his passenger in a duck roll, clearing the wall by mere centimeters. His momentum carried him a few meters beyond the fallen wall. When they became still, Nabiki was laying on her back with Ranma over her.

Unused to the speed he had moved and the massive drain the speed burst had had on his stores of newly formed Ki, Ranma felt dizzy and could not stop his head from drooping down. Now, in the position they were in, that meant that his head fell right between Nabiki's breasts.

And who else but Akane would notice them in that position when she arrived at the scene? She was furious that Ranma was now making moves on her own sister, in public no less! Her battle aura flared to life even as she pulled her mallet from wherever she hid it. She was so intent on pounding him flat for making advances to Nabiki that she never even considered what the strike would do to Nabiki herself, who was still pinned under Ranma.

Fortunately for her, Ranma looked up when he felt a huge Ki source nearing their location. His eyes widened when he recognised Akane, intent on malleting him six foot under. Once again, his mind moved at lighting speed to send the various signals to the right muscles to make a roll so Nabiki was no longer trapped under him and to throw her to safety. Nabiki was still airborne when the mallet descended on Ranma with a loud yell from Akane and it hit him with enough force to drive him partially in the ground and knock him unconscious. His body was still as strong as it normally was, but without the extra protection from his Ki force the mallet managed to cause a severe concussion when it impacted.

"NOOOOO!!!" Akane then heard yelling. She turned around to the sound and saw Ryoga running at her. He had a look of horror on his face as he approached her and Ranma.

Ryoga, who had been hiding in a tree to observe Ranma, had seen the entire thing and was appalled and seriously shocked when Akane had brought her mallet out to bear on Ranma. There was no way that he could dismiss what he had seen as Ranma's fault. When Ranma had rolled out from under the falling wall he had felt his Ki dropping to dangerously low levels. So it came as no surprise that Ranma had nearly blacked out. Then, for no apparent reason, Akane had whipped out her mallet and proceeded to mallet Ranma, disregarding the fact that Nabiki was still trapped under him. Only Ranma's fast actions had saved Nabiki's life a second time, for there was no way that Nabiki would have survived that blow, even with Ranma taking the worst of the attack. He ran straight past Akane and smacked the mallet away from Ranma as he dropped to his knees besides Ranma.

"My God, Ranma! Are you all right? Can you hear me?" Ryoga proceeded to try and wake Ranma up. However his attempts had no success and Ryoga was forced to pick Ranma up, who hung like a rag doll from his arms. He then thanked the Kami above that his directional curse had been removed the evening before as he ran as fast as he could to the practice of Dr. Tofu.

There, that should be a nice place to stop this chapter. It's a bit shorter that the previous one, but this way I get some suspense in the story. So, whadda ya think of it? Good? Bad? Let me know. REVIEW!!!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey people, I'm back with a new chapter. But first, I want to congratulate the 100th reviewer, which would be **Holy Half Vs Chaos Half**. Congrats on being number 100 to review my story. Hmm, maybe I should involve you in the story somehow... Oh, well, I'll let you know if I decide on that. Meanwhile, I'm typing this chapter while my left hand and wrist are in a cast because of surgery I had, so you'll have to be patient about this chapter. On to the votes.

Nabiki: 31  
Kasumi: 22  
Pluto/Setsuna: 15 (= This is SOOOO not gonna happen!!)  
Rogue (X-Men Evolution): 7  
Akane (IF she SERIOUSLY changes): 6  
Mercury/Ami: 5 -- Saturn/Hotaru: 5  
Lina Inverse: 4  
Belldandy: 2 -- Nina: 2 -- Ukyo: 2 -- Ceres Victoria: 2 -- Integra Helsing: 2   
Mara: 1  
Blue: 1  
Katt: 1  
Any of the Tenchi girls: 1  
Tsunami: 1  
Tokimi: 1  
Shampoo: 1  
Sailor Moon/Usagi: 1  
Grown up Chibi Moon/Usa: 1  
Gina Diggers: 1  
Sasami: 1  
Hikaru: 1  
Ryoga: 1 (**= NO WAY!!!**)  
Pan: 1  
Bra: 1  
Jusenky cursed Damaskinos (very old blueish vamp from Blade 2): 1  


That makes a grand total of 121 votes so far. And I've decided that there will be two girls who will be paired with Ranma. I already decided on the first one, but I still need the second girl. I'm not giving any names yet, but it should be pretty obvious to anyone who read the previous chapters. Hehe...

Morden Night raised a suggestion. That a rival of Xion (make it God(dess) or Demon(ness)) creates an Avatar out of, or empowers, someone of Ranma's rivals. To be Ranma's adversary, one that can follow through dimensions. So, my question now is, who's for the idea and who's against it? And for the pro people, who should it be?

Oh, yes, I noticed something that I forgot previous chapter. I'll say it once more and it goes for the entire story. 

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS (except Xion and maybe others later). I DON'T MAKE ANY MONEY FROM THIS. THIS STORY IS FOR FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT ONLY!!!!!**

There, I put it in capitals and bold, so it's noticeable. If anyone sues, I'm gonna kick you so hard for not reading that disclaimer. So beware.

Ok, pleasantries are over, I suppose I can get started with the story then.

*****

**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 5**

While Ranma was being carried to Dr. Tofu, Nabiki was slowly coming out of her near-death induced shock. She was still sprawled on her back where Ranma had thrown her to save her from Akane's mallet. She didn't know that though. The last thing she consciously remembered, was the sight of the wall falling towards her. Details of her surroundings were slowly filtering through in her mind. For one, she was on her back. For another, her butt hurt. While her eyes were open, she didn't seem to see anything. Slowly but surely, a form began to take shape. At the same time, she began hearing something. Someone was saying something to her. But what? Nabiki had to concentrate to make out the words. 

"...iki...you...ight?" Pause.

"...biki,...re you...right?" Another pause. Nabiki heard the words, but couldn't put them in the right context. She tried again to understand the words spoken to her.

"Nabiki, are you all right?" Finally she heard the words and understood them. Now that she had understood the words, she tried to see who was holding her and talking to her. The image cleared up pretty fast and revealed Ryomi, one of her very few people she called friends, who had a worried look on her face. She blinked and turned her head slightly so she was looking right in Ryomi's face.

"Nabiki, talk to me. Are you all right?" Ryomi tried again. At least Nabiki seemed aware of her now. Nabiki blinked again and tried to say something. Her vocal cords weren't cooperating. She tried again. This time she was successful.

"R...Ryomi?" Nabiki stammered.

"Yeah, it's me. How do you feel?" Ryomi asked. Good. At least she was coherent again.

"Fine, I think. What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember? I'll fill in the rest from there."

Nabiki thought for a moment before she answered. She remembered seeing the wall about to fall on her. Then she vaguely remembered feeling like someone had her pressed tightly against them, but she wasn't sure about that. She told Ryomi.

"Well, you're right about the being pressed against someone. Ranma saved you just before you were about to be crushed by that wall. You should have seen it! It was like he teleported or something! Heck, knowing Ranma, it's entirely possible that he did teleport. Anyway, after he got you from under that wall, he collapsed on top of you. I don't know why that happened, but he collapsed. Then Akane spotted the two of you. Like always, she jumped to conclusions. Obviously she thought that Ranma was molesting you or something. Next thing I know, she charged at your position with that mallet of hers to strike. Ranma saved your life a second time that moment."

You see, Ryomi was someone who didn't like Akane very much. So she would do nothing to make her look good or make it look like Ranma's fault. Nabiki couldn't quite wrap her mind around the idea that Ranma would have saved her from that falling wall. And again only moments later?

"Huh? What do you mean 'a second time'? I was safe, wasn't I?" Nabiki asked.

"From the debris, yes. But not from Akane's strike." Ryomi replied.

"What?" Nabiki asked, not understanding.

"Akane was going to mallet Ranma for seemingly groping you. She never considered the fact that you were still trapped underneath him. Had Ranma not thrown you to safety at the last moment, you would have been crushed under the mallet of your sister."

Nabiki trembled. Who wouldn't when they heard their own sister would be that careless. To think that Akane would disregard the fact that she had been under Ranma and thus would have been struck as well was shocking in the least. There had to be some kind of mistake. Akane wouldn't be that irresponsible. She wouldn't...

"As it is, when Ranma was hit, we heard something cracking. And we doubt it was the mallet. Then that strange guy that appears every now and then popped up out of nowhere. What's his name? Ryoga, I think. Yeah, that's it. He smashed the mallet away and pulled Ranma out of the ground. Then he ran of with him. Nabiki, Ranma was hanging like a ragdoll from his arms. It was like...he...was...dead..." Ryomi trailed off.

Nabiki's head was spinning. Ranma, badly hurt? Or worse? But Ranma couldn't be defeated. He always won. Always. Nabiki looked to where her younger sister was standing. She was that she was in a heavy and heated debate with Ukyo. And just a little distance from Akane was a dent in the ground that had not been there previously. A meter or so further, Akane's mallet. Dread gripped Nabiki's heart as she saw the evidence for herself. The newly formed dent was very close to where the section of the wall had fallen. Add to that the mallet lying near the dent as well as the heated discussion Akane was having with Ukyo, there were only so much possibilities Nabiki could reach. She looked at Ryomi.

"Get me out of here." She almost pleaded.

Ryomi nodded and quickly ushered Nabiki on her feet. Not wanting to wait for Nabiki to regain her proper balance, she swung her arm over her shoulder and made her lean on her as she helped her away from the scene as fast as she could.

"I should get you to the nurse, to see if you're allright." Ryomi said.

"No." Nabiki countered.

"But..."

"No. I'm going to Dr. Tofu. He's our family doctor anyway. By now, she had regained her balance enough to walk on her own and so she stopped leaning on her friend. "With any luck, Ryoga acctually found his house. It's not that far from here, so there's a chance that he found it."

_'Ok, so the chance of that happening is close to zero, but I have to keep thinking possitive. Because if he didn't found the doctors house and wandered off with an injured Ranma, then who knows what will happen...'_

Nabiki didn't know about Ryoga's cured directional problems yet. If she had, she might have been feeling a lot better. But she didn't know it. Instead, while they were running, she began to wonder why Ryoga had been there in the first place. And why had it been him to take Ranma away and not someone else? Afterall, it certainly was no secret that the two didn't like eachother a whole lot.

***

While Nabiki and Ryomi were running as fast as they could to Dr. Tofu's house, Ryoga arrived there. Once again he thanked the gods that his curse had been removed. While running, Ryoga had noticed that Ranma's left shoulder didn't seem natural. Having travelled quite a bit, he needed little time to recognise a dislocated shoulder. He shuddered. He'd once suffered from that himself and knew it to be no plesant experience. He had held the arm as still as possible, as to keep it from getting worse by letting it dangle while he was running. He was worried. He'd never seen Ranma in a state like this. Completely limp and lifeless. If it weren't for his Ki-senses telling him that there still was life in the body he was carrying, he would have thought Ranma to be dead. Finally he had arrived at his destination. He entered the house, making sure Ranma didn't hit anything on his way in. Last thing he needed was making Ranma's condition even worse then it was.

"Dr. Tofu!! I need your help!!" He yelled, scaring the people in the waiting area out of their skin. Naturally, Dr. Tofu came out to see what all the racket was about. To say he was shocked when he saw Ryoga standing there with Ranma hanging limply in his arms would have been an understatement. He'd never seen Ranma in such a state. He quickly ushered Ryoga and his precious cargo in his office.

"Lay him on the table and tell me what happened." He said as he directed Ryoga to the examination table.

"To make it short, Ranma saved Nabiki from becoming a pancake under a wall and Akane rewarded him by introducing her biggest mallet to his face." Ryoga answered. Ok, so this was not his usual way of acting, but the more he had thought about it while carrying Ranma to the doctors place, the more confused and angry he had become about Akane's actions. He had been going over and over the scene and he could find no reason that Ranma would have deserved to be malleted as he had been. He hadn't deserved it, period. It never occured to him that Akane had been thinking that he had been harrassing Nabiki. Without Ranma's active chaos aura, he tended to think a bit more rather than jump to conclussions.

"Akane did that? But why would she hurt Ranma if he just saved Nabiki. I think it would be better if you told me everything and maybe we'll be able to clear this up. There must have been something that would cause Akane to do this." Dr. Tofu said as he started to examine Ranma.

"Ok. Oh, before I forget, Ranma's left shoulder has been dislocated." Ryoga told the doctor. He saw the older man looking at the shoulder and setting it right again. Seeing that the good doctor was focussed on his patient, Ryoga quietly slipped into the waiting room, giving the doctor his space he needed to work.

Tofu quickly checked the statement and after hitting a few pressurepoints that would dull the pain, he reset the shoulder. Then he examined his patient further. He finished quickly. Save for a concussion and a nasty bruise where the mallet had landed, he had no more physical injuries. But what worried him was the fact that Ranma's Ki seemed to die away. It got weaker with each passing minute. And on the other hand, a second Ki source was present in Ranma. One that was growing. Growing at a faster rate than the other was weakening. But Tofu didn't understand it. As far as he knew, nobody could have two sources of Ki in them. This needed looking into.

***

Akane in the mean time, couldn't understand why Ryoga had reacted the way he had. Afterall, she didn't do anything wrong, did she? She only made sure Ranma stayed in line. And Ryoga never even liked Ranma, so why would he be helping him? She just didn't understand. So she turned to head inside, never noticing the large section of the wall lying not 10 meters away, nor remembering the sound that wall had made when it impacted on the ground. She frowned. She did remember Nabiki in a compromising position before she corrected Ranma. How could she?! Her own sister, moving in on her fiance. She'd have to talk to Nabiki when she got home, seeing as she was nowhere in sight. Yes, she'd have a nice little chat with her older sister...

***

Ryoga was pacing. And marveling on how he could pace without getting lost in the process. His senses told him that Ranma had sort of stabilized, as far as he could tell from the twin Ki sources emenating from Ranma. Still, he worried. And again marveled at that. Only a week ago, he had thought Ranma to be the source of his unhappyness and now he was worried about him. But it felt good to worry about him. To worry about a friend.

Friend. That word gave Ryoga a happy feeling. And it was true. He considered Ranma to be his friend. He didn't know why or since when, but he knew it to be true. The sense of people approaching broke his internal musings. He looked at the door, just in time to see it open to reveal Nabiki and another girl. When Nabiki spotted him, she seemed very surprised to see him.

"Ryoga! You're here?!" She not-quite-yelled.

"Uhm... yeah." The former Lost Boy answered.

"How did you get here? You get lost just walking down the street!" Nabiki was confused. She didn't like being confused.

"Oh, that. Well, it seems my getting lost was the cause of a curse put on my Clan a long time ago. I don't know how he did it, but somehow Ranma found out about it and had it removed." Ryoga told the now very confused Nabiki.

"What?!? B-b-b-but, why would he do that? And how did he discover your curse?" There were to many variables in this. Nabiki didn't like variables like this.

"He did it because he wants to be friends instead of enemies. And I have to admit, being friends sounds a lot more appealing than being his enemy right now."

"Huh?" Now Nabiki lost it. Ryoga actually saying he wanted to be friends with Ranma? Was the world coming to an end?

"I was there, Nabiki." Suddenly turning very serious, Ryoga continued. "When you were about to die from that wall, I was there. I was watching Ranma, to see if something would happen. Something changed about Ranma. Something fundamentally. But I'm diverging. When Ranma saw that you were about to be crushed by the falling wall, he unleashed power I didn't think he had. The amount he set free was immense. Which is also the reason he nearly blacked out after getting you to safety. His Ki level dropped below that of a normal man. And for someone who is used to a much higher level of Ki, this is potentially lethal."

Nabiki was no longer confused. She was shocked. Never before had she seen Ryoga this serious. This kind of serious anyway. She had seen him before when he was trying to kill Ranma or just pummel him, but this was something else. And the information he had given her. Ranma unleashing enough power for him to be dangerous to his health, just to save her. But before she could form a reply, the office door opened and Dr. Tofu came out.

"Ah, there you are." He said to Ryoga and then noticed Nabiki standing by him. "Oh, hello Nabiki. Are you alright? 

Nabiki needed a moment to understand what the doctor was talking about, but she soon figured out he was talking about the near death situation she had.

I feel fine, but maybe it'd be best if you checked anyway. 

"Very well. And in the mean time, you and Ryoga can tell me what happened exactly concerning Ranma."

Nabiki nodded and turned to Ryomi, who she told to go back to school and inform the teachers where she was. After sending her on her way, she turned to the doctor and followed him inside.

***

When they entered the examine space, Nabiki immediately looked for Ranma. She nearly lost her cool again when she saw him. Pale as a sheet, a bandadge around his head and one around his left shoulder. She couldn't see any more because of the sheet, but it told her that Ranma was hurt worse than she had first thought.

"Doctor, how is Ranma?" She asked.

Dr. Tofu turned to face her and was a little shocked to see clear concern on her face. Not what he was used to from Nabiki. Nevertheless, she looked good with emotion loose, even one such as concern.

"Ranma will be fine. He has a slight concussion and a dislocated shoulder. His shoulder has been reset and given his healing abilities, it will only be a day or two before it's back to normal. However, it'll take him longer to recover from his concussion. It's imperative that Ranma gets rest until he is fully recovered. If he doesn't, the change of more serious or even permanent damage to his brain increases stongly. I'll even hold him here for observation tonight, since Genma cannot be trusted with his care.

Nabiki had to agree with that. She wouldn't trust Genma with anything that important either. Heck, she wouldn't trust him to get some bread from the bakery. She nodded that she understood and let herself be examined by Dr. Tofu. Of course, Ryoga had to keep away, since he still couldn't handle a girl unclothing, even a little. In any case, he couldn't afford what Nabiki would charge if he did watch, should the good doctor not kick him out. When Nabiki was given a clean bill of health, they sat in Dr. Tofu's office and they recounted what had happened. Dr. Tofu was a little shocked at how Akane had reacted. He never expected her to be so careless.

"I can't see why Akane would react that way, but it seems that she isn't as perceptive as I thought. I think I'll keep Ranma upstairs and allow no visitors until he is well enough to receive them." Dr. Tofu said after hearing the explanation.

Nabiki had mixed feelings about this. On one side, she understood and agreed the doctors reasoning, but on the other side, she wanted to thank Ranma for saving her. She knew that she wasn't acting as she normally would, but then again, she never had been close to dying either. While she might not have shown it in any other case that she appreciated what Ranma had done for her, she simply couldn't let something this big go without even a simple thank you. Finally, she simply nodded and said it would probably be for the best.

After that, both Nabiki and Ryoga bid the doctor a good day and left. After all, there were other patients waiting. Nabiki said goodbye to Ryoga and left for home. As she walked, her anger about her sisters behaviour returned and she began thinking of ways she would make it clear to Akane that she was very upset about nearly dying by her hands.

Ryoga had no idea what to do next, as he still wasn't used to knowing where he would end up if he wandered. However, his mind kept replaying the events leading up to Ranma being injured. He resolved himself to try to make sense of Akanes actions.

***

Time had gone by and the night had fallen. While Nabiki was busy chewing out Akane, Ranma was still sleeping. In his sleeping body, the process of merging the Chaos energies and his own Ki was almost done. Only a little of both remained.

Outside the chamber he occupied, a presence manifested itself. Blue eyes looked through the window, looking at the sleeping form of Ranma. Those eyes held a spark of insanity, even more so then the eyes of her brother. Kodachi Kuno, or the Black Rose as she liked to call herself. Her pet-ninja had reported to her that her Ranma-darling had been injured. Knowing about the no-visitors the doctor had implemented, but naturally assuming that this would not apply to one such as herself, she had come to pay her love a visit. He would surely see that they belonged together when she took care of his injuries.

Little did Kodachi know that her world was about to be shattered. Ranma's new Ki wasn't up to full power yet, but already his body had adapted to it almost entirely. His Ki-senses were far from what they had been before the merging, but enough to detect that someone was closing in on his position and waking him up as a result. His waking was very subtle, and Kodachi, caught up in her own fantasy where Ranma would make passionate love to her, never noticed the difference. Ranma was awake, a headache beyond anything he ever experienced before and someone with less than good intentions was trying to sneak up on him. Add to that that his mind had assembled nearly all the pieces of the puzzle on what had happened earlier and the final pieces falling into place, what would happen would not be a good thing for whoever snook up on him at the moment. Anger blossomed in him, remembering the familiar aura he had felt before the world had gone black en concluding what had happened caused the anger to change to fury. Red hot fury, flowing through his veins, adding to his not quite returned strength. His eyes snapped open.

Kodachi was delighted when she saw her darlings eyes open. Surely he had felt her magnificent presence and had awoken from his slumber to be with her. When Ranma sat up, that delight crumbled somewhat as she saw his lovely features distort. When she suddenly saw his right hand come at high speed towards her face, she knew something was wrong. When that fist made contact with her nose, her world went black.

Ranma was furious. He knew he had just launched Kodachi through the window with a very hard blow to the face, but he didn't care in the least. The only thing he could focus on right now, was what his mind had puzzled together on what had happened after saving Nabiki. And it was in this fury that the merging completed. In a final flash, both sources of power merged together.

Ranma would never be the same again.

In a way, Ranma had been Reborn...

******

There, finally done. I know it took me forever, but life didn't really like me this past half year. Combined with that a writersblock on not knowing how to write what you know you want to write... Not good for chapters...

Anyway, sorry it took me so long, but here it is. I hope you enjoy it. And I want to thank my betareader for his help in making this thing presenable. Thanks, Morden, you helped a lot. I'm lucky to have you...


	6. Chapter 6

Hey people, I'm back. I know, it always takes me damn long to get a new chapter out, but then again, I'm not that good at writing. But anyway, I'm here now so let's not waste time with menial stuff...

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**Avatar of Chaos**

**Chapter 6**

_Earlier that day..._

Nabiki was mad. And unlike Akane, who was also mad at that moment, she had a valid reason to be mad. Because Akane, self-proclaimed martial artist, had blindely attacked, without thinking about any possible consequenses. Again. Only today someone besides Ranma would have gotten hurt. Namely herself. And she didn't have a martial arts' constitution to withstand the, no doubt, crippling, if not lethal, attack.

She knew and had known for a long time, that Akane had a very bad and a very short temper. That in turn, caused her to handle things like critisism or situations that weren't what they appeared at first sight, in a way that involved something or, as the case had been lately, someone to be hurt. Ranma had been the unfortunate victim for the last two years and some odd months. But to attack and not regard the safety of others, when she always yelled at Ranma for being careless, that was a new low for her.

This incident was only the last in a great number of incidents that proved that Akane was no more than a common streetbrawler instead of the martial artist she fashioned herself to be. But this time she would have her nose pressed to the facts. Because Nabiki took her life serious and would go as far as to call a family meeting to settle this. Things had gone far beyond what should have been allowed. This time, the injured party would recover, but that was only due to his enhanced constitution. What would happen if next time, and there would be a next time if things were left unsettled, the injuries were more severe? Or Kami forbid, permanent or fatal?

No. This had to stop and it had to stop now. No matter what, if Akane could not control herself, she would have to be dealth with. Nabiki would take no joy in this, as opposed to what many might think, but it needed to be done.

Likewise, Akane was mad. But she was mad for the reason she mostly got mad. Again, her perverted fiance had been making moves on an other woman. This time her own sister no less! That meant he was playing around with no less than 4 women besides her! The nerve of that guy, and to make moves in full view of the school population! Honestly, that guy had no shame.

And Nabiki didn't even do anything to stop the pervert! She just let him do as he pleased, fondling her in open view of everybody.

---

(This is supposed to be a big argument between Nabiki and Akane. Setting is just after Akane gets home, where she's confronted by Nabiki in a family meeting. Rough estimate is that Nabiki begins the argument with a big slap delivered to Akane's cheek. Then she proceeds to verbally beat the stuffing out of her while countering every single silly argument Akane brings up. Somewhere during the argument Nabiki slaps her again. Nabiki told Soun and Kasumi earlier that there would be a family meeting and that she'd have words with Akane. She also warned her father that there would be consequences if he disregarded what she would say and simply give in to whatever Akane would say.

I can't seem to get any inspiration for the argument, but I've already let this hang for far too long. My beta offered to write the argument, but I know he's very, very busy at the moment, and really can't spare the time to write an argument for this. So, for now, it'll stay this way, untill I either get inspiration, or someone provides me with an argument I can support. (in case you didn't quite get that, that was an invitation to write an argument and send it to me.)

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_Evening..._

Even across the vast distance that separated them, Xion could feel the completion of the merging process. At first he was very pleased by this, as he could now begin teaching his young avatar on the use of his newly added magical powers. But Xion's smile soon changed to a frown as he felt the furious anger Ranma emitted. Something had gone wrong in his absence and this could prove to be a complication that could have a heavy price upon it. He wished he could conclude his business with the other Gods soon, so he could check with Ranma personnally.

---

Ranma stared at the now broken window where he had just launched Kodachi through.

_'I just hit Kodachi in the face. And yet, I can't seem to care about it.'_ He mused. Both his anger and headache had dulled somewhat in the last few minutes while Ranma was alternately staring at the window and his fist. Further contemplation was interrupted as his door suddenly opened to reveal a freshly-out-of-bed Dr. Tofu. But even though it was obvious he came straight from his bed, he was already clear awake.

"Are you alright, Ranma? I hear noises and the breaking of glass." He said as he gazed upon the broken window.

"I don't know." He admitted honestly. Physically, he was as good as could be expected from him. But mentaly, he wasn't so sure.

Disturbed by the answer, Dr. Tofu went to the window to check outside. At first, he didn't see anything, but as his eyes adjusted to to dark and he looked down, he could clearly see the sillouette of a person lying on the ground. A soft curse left his lips and he turned to rush downstairs when he saw Ranma sitting in the bed. He was still looking at his fist and looked disturbed. But having some experience with Ranma, Dr. Tofu could see from Ranma's eyes that he was angry too. Very angry. And it was different than any other time he'd seen before. Still, he could do little for Ranma at the moment, as his doctor's oath urged him outside to check on whoever lay outside.

Ranma continued to mull over the fact that he didn't, couldn't, care about hitting a girl, even one as loony as Kodachi. He'd always been taught that it wasn't right to hit girls, and while he knew that being a girl didn't equate to being weak, it still didn't feel right. And while thinking about that, he recalled other events that didn't feel right. One of wich was being engaged to multiple women because Genma hadn't been able to control his base desires on their training trip. But the worst of all was that he expected him to 'uphold family honor'. As far as Ranma was concerned, the honor of the Saotome family had been destroyed the first time Genma had broken the original promise between him and mr. Tendo.

He still cared about his own honor, he always would, but he simply didn't see any possible way to uphold, let alone restore, the honor of the Saotome name. No matter what he would decide, in the end, there would always be someone who would suffer because of Genma's actions. Honor would be destroyed, no matter what. There was one path that would get him free of all the promises Genma had made, but he was reluctant to even think of it.

Thinking about honor made his thoughts drift to the Amazons. Even they were here because of honor. Or the Amazons version of it anyway... Still, they'd been pretty quiet after his dealings with Saffron. The only thing they'd done since, was take part in ruining the wedding that was supposed to happen. Then something else trickled in Ranma's mind. The Amazons lived near Jusenkyo with the Musk and the Pheonix people. Neither was powerfull enough to engage the other and be assured of victory. When he had defeated Saffron, he'd done what the Amazons couldn't do with their entire tribe. They feared his power!

That realisation shocked Ranma. Yet he knew he was right. The Amazons were a group that promoted female strenght and power. Bringing in a man with more power that even their leaders would mean that the balance of power in their culture was likely to shift. Ranma had a fairly good idea about what whould have happened to him if they had succeeded in bringing him into their tribe. For one, he wouldn't have been allowed to learn new techniques. For another, he doubted he would have been allowed to train, for fear he would have gained enough power to overtrow the council of elders. He'd have been used as nothing more than breeding stock, to impregnate every willing female, just to grow that much stronger.

However, with his single handed defeat of Saffron, he'd shown that he wouldn't be easy to control, so no doubt they were revising strategies, confident in their own superiority that they would succeed in bringing him back with them. They'd be sorely disappointed, as he'd rather die than become breeding stock.

The concept of breeding returned his thoughts to Genma and mr. Tendo. Those two were adamant that the schools could only be joined by marriage. Even he knew that was a load of bull. If one learned both schools, they'd be joined just the same. But then again, that would mean that no dojo would be passed down, no one would teach students seeing as Akane would more likely kill anyone trying out, and no money would be made to retire on.

Ranma had learned of that scheme some time ago, when overhearing the men, if one could call them that, plastered as they were, divise another stupid plan to assure their 'early and luxurious retirement'. While the methode was different, the core result would be the same as with the Amazons. And with that realisation, Ranma knew he wouldn't go trough with any marriage Genma had a hand in.

He wondered why he only now realised the true intent of the promise to join the schools. He'd known about the retirement plan for some time, so why hadn't he realised it until now? For that matter, why was his mind so clear that he was able to discern the truths in the plans made for him? He'd need to ask Xion that next time he saw him. He did after all have a lot more rescources to use.

But for now, it was best just to go back to sleep, to heal as quickly as possible. Wouldn't want to be at anything less that fighting condition when the next idiot wanting to stake a claim on him, now would we?

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Ok, so I finally got another chapter posted. It took me a damn long time, and I really hope it won't take me that long to bring out the next, but I guess we can only see how that goes.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey people, here I am again. As you (should) already know by now, I'm not a frequent updater, and that will probably never change. Sorry if that bugs you, but I'm trying... Anyway, on with the story.

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**Avatar of Chaos**

_**Chapter 7 **_

Ranma sat back, staring at the almost uniform gray-looking sky. Oh, he knew it wasn't really gray, but that was the easiest to describe it as. He was currently in the Shadow Realm, courtesy of Xion. He was thinking back to when he'd come back from Tofu's to the Tendo homestead. To him, it happened just over a month ago. To those in the Tendo home, only a few hours had passed since then. Strange as this might seem, it was quite simple to explain. Aside from having places of different gravity, the Realm also had a difference in passing time. One day in the normal world would amount to 2 full years in the Realm. Having once taken the time to find out, Ranma had come to the conclusion that 1 hour real time was roughly the same as a month realm-time. He'd been here a few days longer than a month, so a bit over an hour would have passed in the Tendo home. Given that he'd left in the middle of the night, nobody was likely to miss him the few hours he was gone, if even that long.

The affair with Kodachi had been covered up as good as possible. While yes, Ranma had hit her, broke her nose and launched her out a window, she had in fact been breaking and entering. If brought before a court, Ranma's actions would most likely be seen as self defence, and Onu Tofu would be within his rights to claim some sort of settlement for having his house broken into. Being that it involved the Kuno family, in the end there were no charges pressed, either by or against them.

Ranma had spent the entire day with Tofu's, as well as the following night. The day after, he'd been allowed, and escorted, by the doctor to the Tendo home. Upon their arrival there, they had been greeted by the entire group.

---

_ flashback _

Crossing the gates, Ranma and the doctor saw the entire group of residents outside and waiting for them. Ranma had already wrapped himself, and especially his emotions, in the Soul of Ice technique. As a testament to how serious the good doctor took the well being of his patient, he did not loose his composure when he noticed Kasumi, partly aided by the fact that she wasn't looking all that happy (she wasn't happy with Akane, but the doctor didn't know this). Nabiki was anxious, but very little of that shone through her usual mask of indifference and boredom. Akane looked part guilty, and part chagrined at having to welcome them back. Predictably, Soun was crying like a baby, not that he ever did much else. A mosquito stinging him would have made the man cry. For reasons unknown, Genma was in panda-form, and looked ready to attack. In fact, that's exactly what he did the moment both the doctor and Ranma were fully inside the gate.

Ranma tensed at the attack, and prepared to counter it, even as his headache grew worse. Before he, or anyone else, could move against the moving bulk of panda, Tofu had already stepped in front of the bear and punched, yes actually punched, it in the chest, right where the heart was located. The effect was immediate. The panda dropped down, wheezing and coughing like mad. The doctor bent over the downed animal.

"I am a doctor, so what I am about to tell you, goes against everything I believe in. But if you ever attempt to attack a recovering person again, I will personally make sure you will spend a month in the hospital, recovering from complete paralysis. I don't care what your reasons are, Saotome. Remember my words, or suffer the consequences."

Naturally, this shocked everyone present, even Ranma inside his Soul of Ice. That the normally good natured and gentle doctor would attack someone and then threaten them? Nobody had expected the ever see that happen. Even Nabiki had let her mask slip at that. Leaving the downed, and now silent, panda where he was, the duo moved closer to the house, to be greeted by Kasumi.

"Hello Ranma. I'm glad to see you're better. And it is very nice to see you too doctor."

How Tofu managed it, will forever be a riddle, but he managed to reply without falling victim to his usual daze when in the vicinity of Kasumi. Ranma merely let out a small smile directed at her, and nodded his head in thanks. However, seeing that Akane was about to say something, he spoke first, looking directly at her.

"If you ever come near me again, Tendo-san, I will make you regret the day you were born. Your attacks will not be tolerated any more. Stay away from me, and I will do the same in return." Ranma concluded in a very frosty tone. Dismissing Akane entirely after that, he turned to Nabiki.

"Nabiki, I'm glad to see you're unharmed, despite the carelessness of your childish younger sister."

And with that, he quickly thanked the doctor, and walked in the house, leaving everyone standing there, uncaring of what they might think of him. He went straight to his room, and lay down on his bed, trying to lessen the headache the events had given him.

_ end flashback_

_--- _

Shortly thereafter, Xion had contacted him, and after learning what had happened, offered to take him to the Realm, where he could stay until he'd mastered the use of his Ki once more. Ranma had quickly accepted, and was even treated to a small healing spell from Xion that healed him until all that was left was a slight buzz in the back of his mind. A small shelter had been set up for Ranma then, with just the minimum of comfort, a place to sleep, to freshen himself up and prepare some food that was provided by the magical fridge Xion had put there. It wasn't much, but it was all he needed for now.

It had taken Ranma about a week and a half to physically get used to the doubled gravity, to the extent he could move around normally. Nothing fancy, or fast or anything, merely moving around like a normal person. Now that he'd been here for a good month, he could do more, but was nowhere near the levels he was before the Ki merger in the normal world. He knew, that once he did reach that level in the Realm, his speed and strength would be doubled in the real world as a result of the different gravity.

The day before yesterday, he'd finally been able to successfully manipulate his new Ki like he had his old one. That was in no way affected by the gravity, and the control quickly came back. And with the help of Xion, he'd been able to lessen his dependence on emotions to attain that control. He wasn't there yet, but the emotion no longer needed to be nearly as strong as before. In time, and knowing Ranma it wouldn't take all that long, he would be able to control his Ki by extending his willpower, without having to draw on any emotion.

"Yoo, Ranma." Xion said, appearing from behind Ranma, who'd felt the energy signature of his patron God warping into the Realm.

"Hey. How was the meeting with, uhm, what's his face again?"

Xion cracked up at this. He still didn't know why, but the blasé way Ranma could insult someone without even meaning to, was still something that made him laugh. "Hehehe, ah, Ranma. To be so carefree again... Anyway, think you're ready to start learning a bit about the magical power you now command? You've gotten pretty good at using your Ki again, even better than before, so if you want, we could start of teaching you about the magic in you..."

Ranma perked up at that. He loved learning new things. If it wasn't taught in such a boring way, he'd most likely have loved school too.

"Yeah, sure, sounds fun. What'd you have in mind?"

"Well, it's not so much as you doing the whole thing, I'll help, but I thought we could try an illusion. See, illusions are pretty easy to do once you know how. All you really need is a good bit of imagination, and the power to get the illusion going and to keep it up. I'll get the illusion started, then I want you to maintain it and make it look as real as possible. That work for ya?"

"Sure. Till now, me'n magic never really got along, so it's probably for the best if I take this slower than I would with something else."

"Heh, smart man. So, got anything in mind that you'd like to make an illusion of?"

Ranma had to think on that one a bit. A few minutes later, he came up with something that should be cool.

"Got it. I love the feeling of flying when I'm roof hopping. Makes me feel free, you see. And I've seen it in a couple of manga and anime, so I was wondering what I'd look like with wings."

"Oho, so you see yourself as an angel, eh Ranma?" Xion said with a knowing smirk on his face.

"Oh, haha, very funny. You're the one who asked..."

"I know, I know. Alright, we'll do that, but you do understand that that illusion probably won't work all too well, don't you? I mean, a set of wings growing from your back, that'll take a very vivid imagination to get it to look real. But, it's your choice, and it's as good as anything for a first try, so lets get to it." Xion finished, slapping his hands together and rubbing them in an evil-warlord kind of way, making Ranma shake his head. At least he'd left the evil-warlord laugh this time... Out of nowhere, mirrors appeared around him, letting him look at himself from all angles.

"This should help in visualising the wings. Though, I think it'd be even better if you took off your shirt. After all, the wings will be 'growing' from your back, so you can't neglect that." Xion told his young friend. Ranma understood the logic in that, and quickly shrugged off his shirt.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be, I guess."

"Good. Now, I'll begin the illusion and give it a rudimentary shape, as the starting point. I'll then anchor it to you, and when I give the signal, it'll be up to you to maintain it, and see if you can make it as realistic as possible. Don't expect too much though, you chose a pretty complicated illusion to start." Xion cautioned, not wanting Ranma to feel bad if he couldn't do anything with the illusion. Ranma just waved his hand, telling him to get on with it. Shrugging, he did just that and initiated the illusion. Two blurs, roughly the shape of half unfolded wings appeared from Ranma's back, who shivered lightly at feeling the energy against his shoulder blades. He could feel the energy of the illusion being linked to his own power, and carefully took hold of those energies, and thus the illusion. Once he figured he had it, he lightly nodded to Xion, who nodded back, releasing his own hold.

For a moment or two, nothing happened. Then, predictably, the blurs began loosing what little shape they had to begin with. Ranma's eyes widened noticeably when he grasped how much effort it took just to keep the illusion from dissipating, let alone maintaining it's proper shape. But he was determined to make them keep their shape, at the very least. He began pouring a bit more of his power into the illusion, slowing the rate at which it lost it's shape. Then, he concentrated on visualising proper wings growing from his back, all the while continuing to feed power to the illusion. Bit by bit, the loss of shape slowed, and eventually stopped. They no longer resembled anything remotely looking like wings unfolding, but at least they had stopped deforming even more. Which, in Xion's opinion, was quite an achievement for a first try. Ranma was actually holding the illusion together.

Without any warning, the illusion collapsed, and so did Ranma. He was gulping in large breaths of air, having spent a butt load of energy in a short time span. He felt utterly exhausted. Or, at least, he did until Xion began replenishing his spent energy. Powerful as Ranma was, the amount of power he held could still not compare to that of his patron. Powerful as Xion was, it didn't take all that long for Ranma's energies to be back to their normal levels. But Xion didn't quite stop yet. He pushed a bit more energy in his young charge than strictly needed, making Ranma feel as if he was trembling with power, about to explode from the amount he had received. While that was untrue, Xion knew this was a way to artificially boost his Avatar's power. Because, his body would remember the amount of power it had held, and it would adapt, enabling Ranma to generate more power on his own as well. In short, it pushed his limits. It couldn't, and shouldn't, be done a lot of time in a short time period though, otherwise Ranma's body could burn itself out.

"There. Power back to normal, and fatigue relieved. Ready for round two?"

"Hell yeah!" Ranma exclaimed as he pulled his energy under tight control, remembering the way it had felt before he collapsed.

"Alright then. Here we GO!" And with that shout, Xion restarted the illusion once more, but still at the same starting point as the first time.

This time, there was only a slight waver and loss of shape before it stabilised. Ranma did nothing, except keep the illusion together for a few minutes, getting a proper feel of it's make and energy configuration. Thanks to the extra power Xion had provided him with, and his earlier try, he had more energy to spend, and used a bit less than before, meaning he could hold it longer. Then he lightly started to experiment with it. Concentrating on the shape, without adding any power only slightly improved the shape and texture. Adding a bit more power however, proved to make a big difference, as the wings actually became more recognisable as wings instead of mere blobs. Adding too much power however, worked only to disrupt the subtle flows of the illusion and make it waver. So, he figured, the secret lay in a balanced combination of concentration on the shape, and the power to bring about that imagined shape, without disrupting it. Very slowly, but steadily, the wings became more and more like wings. So much was Ranma concentrating on perfecting his image of the wings, that he didn't notice how his power ran out, until once more, he collapsed along with the illusion.

Laying on the floor, panting heavily, he reflected on his two attempts. He had always been a quick study of techniques, but this was fast even for him. He'd ask about that later, but wasn't about to think too much on the fact now that he was on a roll. He could feel Xion already replenishing his depleted power. It filled him to the brim, like before, but it didn't exceed what Xion had given him the first time. He basked in it, loving how alive it made him feel. He suddenly realised that, throughout the illusion experiment, he'd been manipulating his Ki without any emotion as a focus. Which of course, made him grin like an idiot. Trying to flex his energy without maintaining an illusion, and without consciously focusing it through an emotion, he felt elated when it responded to his wants. Oh yeah, mastery of Ki manipulation through willpower was close.

"Hey, you ok?" Xion asked, wondering why his young friend was suddenly, and for no apparent reason, smiling and grinning like an idiot.

"Yep, sure am. Just figured out the trick to energy manipulation without emotional focusing. And man, did that sound complicated for someone like me." And Ranma cracked a smile. Xion didn't like it however. He'd observed that Ranma seemed to have far too little self confidence for anything outside of fighting, and there he had too much of it, making him underestimate his opponent. Undoubtedly the result of spending that much time with his father.

"Hey, nice going. You'll be a master of Ki manipulation in no time, my friend."

"Thanks."

"Just calling it as I see it. I'd never expected you to catch on to the art so quickly. But hey, we still have a job to do here. Or do you think we can call it a day, and try again later?"

"Hell no. Third time's the charm, isn't it? How can I get this illusion stuff if I don't practice it? Come on, lets get to it." Ranma says, full of excitement.

Xion shrugs, and powers up the illusion again. This time, there's no waver as he releases his control over it. As before, Ranma just holds it for a bit, once more feeling it's make-up and trying to gain a more complete understanding of how it works properly. Unlike the second attempt, he does not increase the level of perfection of the illusion bit by bit. Instead, he envisions the set of wings as they should look, feel and move had they been real. While doing so, he gathers all the power he can spare so he doesn't drop dead from expending it all. Then, when he's feeling the image can't get any clearer, and he can't gather any more power, he combines to two into the illusion. With merely a moment in between, the illusion goes from blobish wing like impressions, to an full blown, image-perfect set of angelic looking wings. Power is pouring from him and the two illusionary wings sprouting from his back like heat from a blast furnace. It is felt for dozens of meters in the area. And something reacts...

The very fabric from which the Realm is made, reacts to the presence of such powerful chaotic emissions, and flocks to it like a moth to a flame. Creeping in the illusion and through Ranma's body, the potent power/matter/space-time fabric of the Realm spreads through the young avatar. And when it comes in contact with his centre, his very core of being, there's a bright light, a soundless flash of pure colour, and then there's silence...

---

Ranma wakes, or better, returns to consciousness, slowly. Groaning at the pounding headache he has, he tries to remember what happened. When he remembers the flash, he groans again, and tries to move. And instantly becomes aware of a strange weight hanging from his back, and the feeling of screwed equilibrium.

"Easy Ranma. Don't try to move too much." Xion's soothing voice carries to him.

"Xion? My head hurts..." Ranma manages to get out, causing Xion to smile softly.

"I can imagine, seeing as mine did too when I came too..." He pauses. "Ranma... Something happened earlier... When you completed the illusion..." He trails off, not really wanting to tell him just what had happened to him.

Curious, and dreadful, Ranma opens his eyes for the first time since waking. And sees one of the illusionary wings laying next to him. A picture-perfect, angelic looking wing. And judging from the fact that it's laying on his hand and he could feel the feathers from it, it was also entirely real...

Without meaning to, he jerks his hand away from the wing, and is shocked and dismayed that at the same time he can feel muscles contracting on his shoulders, resulting in the wing moving away from his hand at the same time.

"What the ...?" He gets out, once he's past the speechless stage.

"As far as I can tell, when you completed the illusion, you put in just about all your power, meaning more power than a normal human being has in total, and it was rolling off you in palpable ways, causing the Realm to react to it. The end result being, that you now have a set of real flesh and blood wings, instead of illusions... Before you ask, I've already tried to remove them, and I found that I couldn't do it without causing severe damage to your back, possibly crippling." Xion then falls silent, letting Ranma absorb this new information. After a few minutes, he speaks up again.

"I'm sorry, Ranma, but for now, it looks like you're stuck with them..."

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Done for this chap. Tell me what you think. Reviews are very helpful in that regard. :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Avatar of Chaos**

_**Chapter 8 **_

4 days since the acquisition of a brand new pair of wings. 4 days since, once more, chaos came into Ranma's life, and changed it forever.

Now, granted, Xion had said that he would do his best to find a way to restore him to his former self, and yes, Xion had worked diligently to that end. Ranma however, knew how his life went. There were certain things that just didn't get undone. He knew, from experience, that his new wings would be one of those things. They would not vanish on their own. They would not be removed from his body, not without seriously harming himself in the process. This, he knew. He also knew that since they were new, and unfamiliar, they were a liability. Thus, Ranma did what he did best. He trained.

Day one, he moved his wings around to get a feel of them, and moved them in all the directions and positions he could think off. When his back began to hurt, he folded them on this back, and practiced his ki manipulation. An unfortunate close encounter with water, and some excruciating back pain later, Ranma discovered that the wings were indeed permanent, as even his female form had them. The second day, his back was seriously hurting from using muscles that didn't exist 24 hours before, so he tried to keep the wings as still as possible, and worked on regaining his balance and equilibrium. Again, he spent a decent amount of time working with his ki, to make it more fluid, more responsive to him. On the third day, he combined what he'd done the first two days and, as was his trademark, adapted very quickly. By day 4, he was moving as if he'd had the wings for months instead of a few days. He also tried to get airborne that day, and found that flapping his wings fast enough to attain lift was easier said than done. It had taken him hours before he'd found a suitable rhythm, and again hours before his feet even left the ground.

In the few hours that had gone by from what could be called the day in the strangeness of the Realm, Ranma had practiced flying a bit more, and had managed to lift off, hover, and even move ahead a bit. Flying was more exhausting that he'd thought it would be though. But he felt good about himself. Maybe it was the fact that he was older, or more experienced, but he didn't hate the fact that he had wings now. Sure, for now it was an inconvenience, but with the life he'd had until now, inconveniences were the least of his problems. And besides, even if Xion didn't find a way to restore him to normal, maybe he'd find a way to hide the wings.

Suddenly feeling itchy for some reason, Ranma stood from where he'd been sitting, and walked a while. When he was sure he was far enough from his shelter, he dipped into his Ki and brought it to the fore. He let it roar all around him, like a vortex, a hurricane, with himself in the eye of the storm. For once, he reveled in the power he had as he let it out, simply because he wanted to. And for the very first time since Saffron, he brought it all out. Every little bit he had, and he let it roar.

Ever since the battle with Saffron, his power had grown steadily. And he could never risk it to let it all out, for fear of hurting someone who could not stand against the power he now possessed.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" A voice sounded from behind him.

Startled, Ranma recalled all his power back to him, ready to defend himself at a moments notice. He relaxed when he saw it was just Xion. At the same time, he realized he'd been asked a question.

"Yeah, it does. I normally have to keep my power hidden or suppressed because I could harm someone all too easy this way."

"You don't have to worry about harming anyone here that way. What creatures live here are already pretty strong because of the enhanced gravity, and wild to boot, so they won't come close to you without a good reason."

Ranma nodded. Flexing his wings, he reminded himself to update Xion on their permanent status. Xion nodded to that news, somewhat sadly.

"From what I've been able to learn, I thought they might indeed be permanent. Some avatars from fellow-gods gained wings by accident too. None of them managed to get rid of them."

"I figured that. Stuff like this happens to me more than others it seems. I've gotten used to them. Mostly anyway. Just gimme a bit more time, and I'll be back to my normal level of skill."

"I have no doubt you will, but while I wasn't able to find a way to remove the wings from you, I have found a way to help you hide them. And since they are permanent, I looked for a way to make them stronger."

"Oh?"

"Let's begin." And Xion called upon the powers he had at his command. He focused them, let them envelope Ranma, who felt the immense power around him, and let his own power flow free with it. Xion felt the joining of his energy and Ranma's and was amazed at the way they resonated with one and other. They were actively amplifying each other bit by bit. Deciding that this was something best looked into at a later time, he began what he intended to do to Ranma's wings.

"First, we alter your wings to make them tougher and stronger. We'll do this by changing the outermost layer of them to a diamond-like substance."

A shimmer rolled over the wings, marking the progress of the change brought on by Xion's power. Where the shimmer had passed, the wings still looked essentially the same, aside from the fact that they looked a bit more shiny than before.

"Second, we make it so that your wings can be transformed into energy instead of flesh and blood. Doing so will allow the wings to regenerate faster from any wounds taken and open the way for the third and final part of this alteration, the effective hiding of the wings."

Unlike the first time, the shimmer that appeared started at the base of the wings, from Ranma's back. It wasn't a painful feeling, but it was unpleasant none the less, causing him to grimace. The shimmer surrounded the wings and began to pulse. This was a lot more complicated than the first step. The wings entire structure had to be analyzed so the transformation to energy wouldn't cause the wings to be destroyed. It was taking a lot of Xion's concentration to keep the process going. At long last, the shimmer began to pulse. Slowly at first, but faster after every pulse. With each faster pulse, the second part came closer to it's finish. They began to bleed into each other, no longer distinguished from each other. At last, the shimmer faded, leaving behind a pair of wings, completely made up from energy. For a moment, they stayed in the shape they had when they were matter, but they quickly lost that shape to become two fields of energy only vaguely resembling wings of a bird, but more looking like bat-like wings.

"And to finish, we retract the energy wings into your back, as to finish hiding them."

Under the guidance of Xion, Ranma's body began to pull the energy wings into itself, all the while teaching Ranma how to do it on his own. It didn't take long for the energy to be absorbed in his back, completing the undertaking. Ranma could feel the energy of his wings, they felt out of sync with the rest of his internal energies. He also realized that Xion had broken the merger of their power, leaving him to take his whirling power back into himself.

"You should be able to feel your wings, I purposely altered their energy pattern from that of your Ki, to avoid they get absorbed in it. While it would get rid of your wings, it would mess up your Ki pretty bad as a result. Your wings will regenerate faster when they've been folded into your back. I guess in times of extreme need, you could use their power as you would your normal Ki, but that will damage them. As long as you don't use all their power, they should regenerate to their normal state again. To be honest, I have no idea what would happen if you did use all that power. Perhaps they would simply be gone, perhaps not. You should practice releasing and retracting them so it becomes second nature to you. I think you'll have to let them out ever once in a while, since their pattern is different from you Ki, to avoid harmful friction between the two."

Ranma nodded his understanding, while trying to get a better feel of his wings while they were 'folded'.

"I've brought you two more gifts. And looked for a more practical application for when you're in the Realm." Xion told Ranma. He then tossed a flat stone with a rune carved on it to him, which was caught without problems. "That's a portal stone to get to and from the Realm. Now you don't need to rely on me to bring you here anymore. You activate it by channeling your Ki into it, and observer the way it flows in the stone, so you can learn to create your own portals without it in time. It will open a portal to the Realm from any dimension you're in, and from the Realm it will open a portal to the dimension you were in when you activate the stone. Activating it right now will take you to your home dimension, as I used it to test it out."

Ranma looked at the stone, wanting to test it out and see what it would do. But he didn't really want to go back yet. So he waited. "Thanks Xion. This'll sure come in handy when I need a place to train without being interrupted."

"The portal is invisible to anyone who's not touching the stone or holding on to the person activating the portal. You'll be able to see the portal no matter if you are holding the stone or not, cause the magic used to create the portal is chaotic in nature, so it's your element. Most likely, you'll also be the only person who'll be able to activate the portal, because of your magic-natured Ki. But I'm not truly sure of that, so don't be surprised if someone is able to open a portal anyway."

"I'll make sure nobody gets their hands on it anyway. It'd be far too dangerous for someone to learn of this place."

"True. The less people who know of this Realm, the better. Which is not to say you can't tell anybody, the Realm has no owner at any rate, but still..." He left the sentence unfinished. Pulling a book from out of apparently nowhere, he tossed that to Ranma too. Ranma knew that the apparent nowhere was really a pocket in folded space, or subspace. Much like Mousse's technique of hiding weapons, it could be used to hide and store all manner of items. He knew the basics of how to use one, but he hadn't really dedicated himself to learning how to actually use one. He made up his mind to learn as soon as he could, because who knew what could happen in the future, and having at least some supplies with you always could only be a good thing.

Looking at the book he'd caught, the title caught his eye. _'Seals and hand seals, a complete guide'_ "What's this?" He asked.

"There exist a whole world of Ki powered techniques, and a large portion of those make use of hand seals to focus and form them. With time and practice, you could learn to use those techniques without the seals, but if you wish to learn them, you'll have to start with using the seals. The book is a complete collection of all knows hand seal-based techniques to this date. One of the perks of being the avatar of a god, us gods can do whatever we wish to make our avatars stronger. Since I know you won't let me augment your power more than I already have, I chose to give you new techniques to study."

Hearing that Ranma practically began to salivate on the spot. A whole book with techniques! He'd have to keep this away from the others, especially the amazons. They'd do anything if they knew he had a book like that. One more reason to learn about the subspace pocket.

"The other seals in the book are those used the seal things away, such as demons and other nasty creatures. Or seals to help control magic, to curse somebody... You name it, it'll most likely be in there. I thought you might want to look through it to see if you can't find anything that would help with your Jusenkyo curse. I can't guarantee it, but it's worth a shot." Xion finished.

"Hmm. My curse doesn't bother me all that much anymore, but it'd be good for Ryoga at least. Thanks Xion, I'll look through it and see if I can find anything."

"Good, good. The book is self-updating with any technique you encounter, whether you understand it or not. I'll see if I can create another of those focal stones, for your illusions. Better to have an outside focus till you get more control over the magical side of your power, so we don't have repeats of the last attempt. With your imagination, who knows what you'd end up as." Xion said the last with a grin, taking the sting out of his words. Ranma just grimaced. While it was very true what he was saying, he didn't have to like it.

"Well, I have to leave soon, but first this. I've contacted somebody from a different dimension, asking her if she'd like the challenge of building a more permanent home for you. She's a genius scientist, but a bit eccentric. When I told her of you, she suddenly began to cackle like a truly mad scientist, but I managed to strike a deal. She'll build the home in exchange for the possibility of studying the Realm. She's also a doctor, and she's agreed to become your physician, if you allow her to study your unique nature. I did tell her that any and all experiments she wants to do had to be explained in detail to you, and you get final say in which you want to do and which you don't. That should give you some control over what you want known and what not. I do think she's trustworthy though, and the more she knows, the more she'll be able to help you when you need it."

Ranma nodded, but decided to wait until he knew this person a bit more before he began telling her everything there was to know about him. Knowing his luck, Xion would've found the most loony person in the known universe to be his doctor...

"Anyway, I have to go. Remember, if you need me, I'm only a thought away, and the Realm is always open to you. See you next time, my young Avatar."

"See you later, my Lord." Ranma said, unusually formal for him and with his fist to his heart as he bowed his head. After all, Xion was his patron God, and had gained his respect. All familiarity aside, the would be time where formality would be needed, and some practice never harmed in cases like these. Xion bowed back, and then vanished, without the use of a portal, Ranma noted.

_'All in good time.' _He thought. For now, he had some studying to do and he sat down and opened the book to see what new techniques he could learn and how difficult learning them would be.

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Done for this chap. Tell me what you think. Reviews are very helpful in that regard. :D


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